Knowledge, perception, attitude and ‘willingness to use’ towards complementary and alternative medicine amongst medical students in Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto-Nigeria

Abstract

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is widely practised around the world. Approximately 80% of developing countries like Nigeria rely on CAM. The potential challenges faced by CAM, though not backed by credible scientific evidence, have caused differences in perception and attitude towards CAM Despite these challenges; studies have not sufficiently reported the attitude/behavior of medical, pharmacy and nursing students towards CAM. This study aimed to investigate knowledge, perception, attitude and ‘willingness to use’ towards CAM amongst UDUS medical, pharmacy, and nursing students. After obtaining consent of participants, structured questionnaire adopted from previous studies was administered to 300 participants to fill at their convenience. Information was extracted from filled questionnaires and scored using Microsoft Excel software. Data of socio-demographic characteristic, knowledge, attitude and willingness of study respondents obtained were analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS), version 20. Pearson’s correlation was employed to explore the relationship between consumer knowledge, perception, attitude and ‘willingness to use’ towards CAM. Results obtained show that the participants had good knowledge of CAM as 83% have heard about it and use it and positive perception and attitude towards it. The result further revealed, across groups, a significant correlation between the participants knowledge and their perception, attitude, and ‘willingness to use’ towards CAM. However, willingness to recommend or use CAM was low (< 50%) amongst medical students as compared to pharmacy and nursing students.