| Summary: | This study seeks to find out how users and practitioners perceive Complementary Medicine (“CAM”); hopefully this will give us an insight into their understanding about health and disease and maybe broaden our perspective in health thereby helping to pave the way into finding positive approaches to health education. By means of a questionnaire-based survey coupled with interviews, the researcher gathered data from user and practitioners in English speaking countries both from the east and west. Through the pilot study, the researcher found that the number of people who initially volunteered and the eventual numbers who participated were vastly different, this was due either to, incomplete questionnaires or questionnaires not returned even after constant reminders. In the end, the researcher ventured into the areas of the Internet. The sites that the researcher went into were specifically focused on “Complementary Medicine”. By using keywords, for example “Homeopathy”, “Traditional Chinese Medicine”, and “Ayurvedic Medicine”, the researcher was able to post requests for respondents in “boardrooms” and “chat rooms”. Results were very encouraging and most interesting was respondents who not only answered the questionnaires but were also willing to help by introducing the researcher to other different sites and other respondents. The result of this study has shown that: The predominant influence on eastern respondents’ encounters with “CAM” was either through friends or relatives; usually in the form of “personal experiences”. But in the west, the respondents’ encounters were mainly self-motivated, where respondents actively sought information through reading and questioning. Both eastern and western respondents “chose” to use or practice “complementary medicine”. “Choice” is based, not on ignorance, but on active search for information through reading and questioning. The perceived efficacy of CAM played a major part in continued usage. Respondents were pluralistic in their approach to treatment choice for their ailments. Respondents would prefer CAM to be part of general health care provision. Respondents want conventional medicine to have a symbiotic relation with CAM so that their usage of CAM does not have to be a conspiracy.
|
|---|
