Traditional and Complementary Medicine Practices Used to Prevent COVİD-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study From Turkiye

Figen Türk Düdükcü; Rabia Şener; Ayşe Türkmen; Canan Gazel

doi:10.31067/acusaglik.1255604

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Traditional and Complementary Medicine Practices Used to Prevent COVİD-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study From Turkiye

Year 2024, , 89 - 96, 31.01.2024

Figen Türk Düdükcü , Rabia Şener Ayşe Türkmen , Canan Gazel

https://doi.org/10.31067/acusaglik.1255604

Abstract

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic has shown its effect worldwide and has caused people to experience hard times. This study aims to determine the traditional and complementary medicine (T&CM) practices applied to protect from COVID-19 and attitudes toward them.
Methods: This is a cross-sectional study. Individuals aged 18 years and older were included in the study. A questionnaire form was delivered between April 1 and April 30, 2021, to the participants online through social media due to the measures implemented throughout the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, median value, minimum, maximum, number, and percentile) were given for categorical and continuous variables. Whether there is a difference between the ratios of a single categorical variable and the relationships between two categorical variables were analyzed using Fisher's exact and chi-square tests. A p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results: About half of those surveyed used T&CM to ward off the COVID-19 outbreak. The most used method was herbal mixtures. The prevalence was strongly associated with gender and previous diagnosis of COVID-19. Most of the participants believed that T&CM practices were necessary.
Conclusion: Societies’ T&CM experiences are valuable and worth learning. There is an opportunity to test the true value of T&CM in prevention and treatment of COVID-19. Considering the frequency of use of T&CM practices, it can be suggested that this should be implemented more frequently by health professionals as a policy.

Keywords

COVID-19, Traditional and Complementary Medicine, protection, common illnesses

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