Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice toward Complementary and Alternative Medicine among Elderly People

The aim of the present study was to describe the knowledge, attitude, and practice toward complementary and alternative medicine among outpatient elderly people in Riyadh province. This was a cross-sectional study included a survey that was adapted from previous studies. The descriptive data were represented as numbers and percentages. Most of them used a natural product (93.24%) and about 28% of them used physical and mental practices. Most of the respondents said that the main advantage of CAM use included the natural source of these drugs that don’t cause side effects (64.73%) in addition to the availability of these agents (41.55%). Most of the respondents said that their families (54.59%) or their friends (35.75%) usually recommended these treatments to them. More than 60% of the respondents reported that they didn’t discuss the use of complementary and alternative medicine with their physicians. The present study showed that there was a limited knowledge, negative attitude, and poor practices of elderly people in Riyadh Region toward complementary and alternative medicine. So, it is important to conduct educational sessions to increase the awareness of the public particularly elderly people about the benefits and safety of complementary and alternative medicine. Moreover, health care providers should educate their patients about the appropriate use of these products.