Effect of clinical control and symptom severity on attitudes towards holistic complementary alternative medicine in individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Introduction

Many symptoms such as dyspnoea, chronic cough, chronic expectoration experienced in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and the progressive course of the disease negatively affect individuals bio-psychosocially and reduce their quality of life. At this point, it is believed to be important to use pharmacological and evidence-based complementary alternative medicine (CAM) methods together for effective disease management in COPD. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of clinical control and symptom severity on attitudes towards holistic, complementary, and alternative medicine in individuals with COPD.

Methods

This descriptive and correlational study was conducted with 150 hospitalised individuals with COPD that met the inclusion criteria for the study. A questionnaire form, the Modified Medical Research Council Dyspnoea Scale (mMRC), the Clinical COPD Questionnaire (CCQ), COPD Assessment Test (CAT), and the Holistic Complementary and Alternative Medicine Questionnaire (HCAMQ) were used to collect the data.

Results

In the study, 38% of the individuals with COPD used CAM, and herbal methods were the most preferred. The mean HCAMQ score was 28.24 ± 5.88. There was a statistically significant positive correlation between HCAMQ and mMRC and Clinical COPD Questionnaire functional status scores (p < 0.05). An increase of one unit in the mMRC scores was correlated with an increase in HCAMQ scores of 1.125 points (p < 0.05).

Conclusion

The present study determined that individuals with COPD had a positive attitude towards CAM, and the positive attitude towards CAM decreased with increasing dyspnoea level and decreasing COPD functional status control.

Funding

None