DOHA: Complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) are used by almost 40 percent of middle-aged Arab women in Qatar, says a study by Weill Cornell Medical College (WCMC) researchers in Doha and New York.
It also suggests that it is important to inform patients and healthcare providers about benefits and limitations associated with CAM.
A survey of 841 women aged 40-60 of Qatari and other Arab nationalities found that 38.2 percent had used CAM such as special diet, herbal remedies, physical treatments like acupuncture and massage, homeopathy, traditional Chinese medicine, meditation or folk medicine.
The first comprehensive study on the use of CAM in Qatar has been published in World Health Organisation’s Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal.
Titled ‘Use of complementary and alternative medicine among midlife Arabic women living in Qatar’, it was authored by Dr Linda M Gerber, Professor of Healthcare Policy and Research, WCMC in New York; Dr Ravinder Mamtani, Associate Dean, Global and Public Health, WCMC-Q; Dr Sohaila Cheema, Director, Global and Public Health, and Dr Mohamud Verjee, Associate Professor, Family Medicine.
Dr Gerber said, “We felt that there had been little research on health-related behaviours and practices of midlife women in Qatar. Our results may inform patients and healthcare providers about the fairly widespread use of CAM in Qatar. The finding that 38 percent of our sample of women aged 40-60 had used CAM in the previous 12 months merits attention since the safety and efficacy of CAM may be of concern. Often patients do not tell doctors about their use of CAM and doctors often do not ask about non-medicinal or non-conventional therapies. We believe it is important to educate and inform patients and healthcare providers about benefits and limitations associated with CAM.” Respondents were women who had sought healthcare at primary health centres and hail from the Arab World, including Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, Sudan, Lebanon and Syria.
The Peninsula
