Medical students' attitudes about complementary and alternative medicine

Objective: To compare the attitudes about complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) of medical students from two different medical schools and at different stages of their medical training (first and third years). Design: Four-group, cross-sectional, self-administered survey study. Settings and Subjects: Three hundred and eleven (311) students from two British medical schools (Newcastle and London). Outcome measures: Self-reported knowledge of, attitudes about, and beliefs about CAM. Results: Third-year students thought CAM overall was less effective than first-year students and also were significantly less interested in training in CAM techniques. The 43 attitude statements factored into six interpretable factors. A medical school X year ANOVA on the factor scores showed many results consistent with the first part of the study. First-year students seemed more eager to be taught CAM than third-year students, and students at Newcastle were more positive about CAM than those at University College London. Conclusions: Education at medical school does influence attitudes to CAM. As their orthodox medical training proceeds, medical students seem to increase their skepticism about CAM.