Arizona Pharmacist's Attitudes Towards Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of the study is to gain knowledge about pharmacists’ use and recommendations toward complementary and alternative medicine in the state of Arizona. METHODS: Samples were obtained through an online survey. Members from Arizona Pharmacy Alliance (AzPA) were emailed asking them to participate in an online survey. The sample size was all the pharmacists who are members of AzPA and have an email address, about 900 pharmacists. There were 187 responses, giving a response rate of 21%. The questionnaire was developed using questions from previous studies of pharmacists, physicians, and nurses. Demographic information collected included age, number of years practicing, ethnicity, sex and type of pharmacy he/she practices in. RESULTS: Pharmacists who have been treated with CAM personally are more likely to agree that CAM is a useful supplement to conventional medicines (p<0.001). Pharmacists who do not use CAM regularly to treat their own symptoms or illnesses were less likely to think CAM is a useful supplement to conventional medicine (p<0.001) and less likely to think CAM should be integrated into main stream western medicine (p<0.001). Pharmacists practicing greater than 20 years are more likely to think that their attitude toward alternative medicine has changed substantially over the past few years (p=0.028) and are more likely to think CAM should be integrated into western medicine (p=0.036) compared to those practicing less than 10 years. CONCLUSION: Based on the results, the hypothesis that pharmacists with personal CAM use are more likely to recommend or have a positive attitude toward their patients and recommend CAM was supported. The other hypothesis of pharmacists who have more recently graduated from pharmacy school will have a more positive outlook on CAM has been refuted as it was shown that those who have been practicing more than 20 years are more likely to believe CAM should be integrated into Western medicine.