Attitudes and beliefs of paediatric oncologists regarding complementary and alternative therapies.

We report the results of a cross-sectional questionnaire survey amongst paediatric oncologists in Germany. In addition to descriptive statistics, dichotomous subgroups were formed and univariate and multivariate analyses performed. There were 175 evaluable questionnaires (response rate 26.5%). Almost half of the responders (48%) had not been taught anything about CAM at medical school. Knowledge about CAM was found significantly more often in younger doctors (<43 years), in doctors who brought up the subject of CAM with the parents and in doctors working in non-university hospitals with fewer than 50 new admissions per year. A little over half of the responders (56%) had never used CAM when they had been ill themselves. Most of the doctors (78.9%) agreed fully or somewhat with the statement "CAM should be used after completion of the conventional treatment". Older doctors agreed significantly more often that CAM should be used after failure of the conventional treatment. Paediatric oncologists were worried about CAM use by their patients because of possible interactions (76%) or side-effects (65.7%), additional costs (75.4%), possible prevention or delay of conventional treatment (68%) and their own lack of competence to provide advice. The topic of CAM was raised at the first consultation by 41.1% of the responders. A wish for more continuing medical education on CAM was expressed by 85.2%. In summary, the data presented here indicate that the majority of the responding G...
Source: Complementary Therapies in Medicine - Category: Complementary Medicine Authors: Tags: Complement Ther Med Source Type: research