Health Literacy and Attitudes to Holistic, Complementary, and Alternative Medicine in Peritoneal Dialysis Patients: A Descriptive Study

Article information
Article title
Health Literacy and Attitudes to Holistic, Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Peritoneal Dialysis Patients- A Descriptive Study
Authors
Nurcan UZDİL* Züleyha KILIÇ
Affiliations
Nurcan Uzdil is Assistant Professor (RN, PhD), Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Mental Health and Disease Nursing, Erciyes University, Kayseri, Turkey
Züleyha Kılıç is Assistant Professor (RN, PhD), Department of Internal Diseases Nursing, Niğde Ömer Halisdemir University, Zübeyde Hanım School of Health, 51100, Niğde -Turkey.
Corresponding author’s email address and Twitter handle
[e-mail]
Keywords
Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Health Literacy, Holistic, Peritoneal Dialysis.
Abstract
İntroduction: Chronic renal failure (CRF) patients use many complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practices to manage their symptoms. This research was conducted descriptively and relationally to determine the relationship between the attitudes of peritoneal dialysis patients toward holistic CAM and their health literacy (HL) levels.
Methods: The study was conducted on 91 peritoneal dialysis patients who were treated in the adult peritoneal dialysis unit of a university, met the inclusion criteria, and agreed to participate in the study. Data were collected using the survey form Holistic Complementary and Alternative Medicine Questionnaire (HCAMQ) and Health Literacy Scale (HLS). Ethics committee approval, institutional permission, and informed consent of the patients included in the study were obtained.
Results: It was observed that 72.5% of peritoneal dialysis patients use CAM, and the mean HCAMQ score was 24.03 ± 7.94. Moreover, 76.9% of the patients implementing CAM used herbal methods, and 92.3% preferred CAM to strengthen immunity. İn addition, 63.6% patients did not inform healthcare personnel about their CAM use. In the present study, the mean HLS score of peritoneal dialysis patients was 102.88 ± 21.06, and a statistically significant and negative correlation was observed between the mean HCAMQ and HLS scores (r=-0.240; p<0.05). Patients who reported their use of CAM to healthcare personnel had higher HLS scores than those who did not. A positive perception of health had a significant effect on both HCAMQ and HLS.
Conclusion: The majority of peritoneal dialysis patients included in the study used CAM, and their attitudes toward CAM use were positive. Most of the patients did not report the use of CAM to healthcare personnel. The HL levels of the patients were high. Positive attitude toward HCAMQ increased as the HLS level increased.