Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) Education and Medical Students' Attitudes toward CAM

Bong Hyun Chang

doi:10.7599/hmr.2010.30.2.136

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Chang: Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) Education and Medical Students' Attitudes toward CAM

Review Article

Hanyang Medical Reviews

Hanyang Medical Reviews 2010; 30(2): 136-141.

Published online: 31 May 2010

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7599/hmr.2010.30.2.136

Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) Education and Medical Students' Attitudes toward CAM

Bong Hyun Chang, M.D.

Department of Medical Education, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea.

Corresponding author (bhchang@knu.ac.kr)

Received 1 April 2010 Accepted 30 April 2010

(open-access):

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), also referred to as complementary medicine describes those unconventional healthcare practices that are not considered standard medical approaches. The increasing popularity and use of CAM modalities by consumers indicate a high need to integrate CAM education into conventional medical curriculum and evaluate CAM-related educational outcomes including the medical students' attitudes towards CAM. The number of Korean medical schools offering courses in CAM has risen sharply in recent years. Educational courses of study in CAM have developed. The Korean Society of Complementary and Integrative Medicine proposed a standard 16-hour CAM curriculum for medical students. The CAM Health Belief Questionnaire (CHBQ) is useful in measuring the medical students' attitudes toward CAM theories and practices. The students have shown positive attitudes toward CAM. The findings of positive attitude/beliefs toward CAM is useful for guiding future CAM curriculum development. The didactic CAM instruction curriculum appeared not to have additionally impacted on already positive attitudes toward CAM. It seems that we have to collect information on changes in CAM knowledge and skills to demonstrate an increase in these domains of learning.

Keywords: Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), CAM education, Medical students' attitude, CAM Health Belief Questionnaire (CHBQ)

Figures and Tables

Table 1

The CAM Health Belief Questionnaire (CHBQ)

^*All items used a seven-point Likert-type rating scale, with 1= "Absolutely Disagree" and 7= "Absolutely Agree." ^†Item responses were reverse scored so a higher value indicated greater endorsement and more positive attitude.

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