Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Primary Health Care Physicians in Bahrain towards Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM)

Introduction : The use of CAM has become popular and widely practiced among the general population. The integration of CAM into the ordinary medical system has been encouraged by World Health Organization (WHO) to improve the quality of care in the health for all strategy. This research aims at studying the knowledge, attitude and practice of primary health care doctors towards CAM in Bahrain. Method: A cross sectional study of all the 323 primary health care doctors who are working in the governmental health centers in Bahrain were the study population. A self-filled questionnaire was used for data collection. The Questionnaires were distributed to all primary health care doctors by name and collected after one week through the chief of medical services of primary health care. Data were entered and analyzed using SPSS program version 18. Results: Two hundred and twenty two (68.7%) questionnaires out of 323 questionnaires were completed. Around half (50.5%) of the respondents stated that they have a poor level of knowledge about CAM, while only 6 (2.7%) of them stated that they have an excellent level of knowledge. General non-medical sources were the main source of knowledge about CAM with general reading ranked as the main source (48.2%), followed by general media like TV and radio (34.2%), and followed by internet (23%). In general, the attitude of primary care doctors toward CAM was positive with 72.5% of them interested in CAM, 81.1% believe that training in CAM would affect their practice as doctors, and 73.9% agreed that CAM is beneficial. Regarding the practice of PHC doctors toward CAM, more than half (59.5%) had used CAM with their patients, while only 23% of them had referred patients to CAM practitioners. Most of PHC doctors (79.7%) stated that they asked their patients about the use of CAM. Conclusion: Primary Health Care doctors in Bahrain have a poor knowledge about CAM and would like to know more about it. On the other hand, they have a good attitude towards using CAM with their patients.