Complementary and alternative treatment methods in chronic rheumatic diseases in the Central Anatolia

Abstract

Background: The aim of the study is to identify the kind of traditional practices used for the rheumatic diseases in the central Anatolia. Materials and Methods: A total of 440 volunteer patients with chronic rheumatic diseases including osteoarthritis (OA), fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), spondyloarthropathy (SpA), familial Mediterranean fever (FMF), Behcet's disease (BD), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD) were enrolled in the study. All patients were administered a 36-item questionnaire. Results: Of the patients, 49.3 % were using CAM. Herbal medicine was the most commonly (58.1 %) preferred methods. The CAM was used by 86 (48%) of 179 patients with OA and by 51 (60%) of 85 patients with RA. The difference in the CAM use across the disease groups was not statistically significant (chi(2)=7.343; p=0.290). When the patients using or not using CAM were assessed according to their education status, it was found that CAM was used by 59 (66.3%) of 89 patients with university degree and indicating a statistically significantly higher number of patients from higher education status among the CAM users (chi(2)=17.651; p=0.001). Conclusions: Our study results suggest that among patients with rheumatic disease, patients with RA more commonly resort to the methods of CAM.