The use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine among Adults with Noncommunicable Diseases in Bangladesh
Description
Survey procedure The sample size included 549 participants from selected health care facilities in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Every eligible patient was selected at the health facility using a systemic sampling procedure. We recruited all patients using the convenient sampling method who access services of the selected health facilities for their treatment with some inclusion criteria with a minimum age of 20 years and who have been treated for any types of noncommunicable diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, chronic kidney disease (CKD), chronic respiratory disease (CRD), chronic heart disease, cancer, chronic pancreatitis, chronic pain, liver disease, musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) and mental disease etc. After screening for these two inclusion criteria, researchers conducted face to face interviews after informed consent was obtained with the patients at the health care facilities, using structured questionnaires. They were reassured that all the information collected would be kept strictly confidential and would not be used for anything other than research purposes. However, the verbal consents were taken for the study from the participants. Independent variable Patients’ socio-demographic factors and some clinical data about NCDs were considered as independent variables. The sociodemographic variables included gender, age group (20-39, 40-59, 60+ years), marital status (married, never married), education (≤5 years of schooling, 6-12 years of schooling, 12+ years of schooling), location of residence (urban, rural), employment status (yes, no). The economic condition was determined by the monthly house hold income of the respondents. The monthly household income was categorized as ≤20,000 BDT (approximately US$ 238), 21,000-50,000 BDT, >50,000 BDT. Outcome variable A close ended question inquiring ‘whether the respondents ever used CAM or not’. The use of CAM was the outcome variable of this survey. It has three categories of responses: never used CAM for NDs, used CAM for NCDs, and both conventional medicine and CAM used for NCDs. The sample was classified according to CAM utilization, such as CAM non-user (code, 0), CAM user (code, 1), and combined CAM with conventional medicine user (code, 2).