Application of alternative and complementary methods of treatment in oncological patients

Komplementarna i alternativna zdravstvena i medicinska praksa KAM skupina je različitih medicinskih i zdravstvenih sustava, praksi i proizvoda koji se trenutno ne smatraju dijelom konvencionalne medicine. Alternativna medicina odnosi se na terapijske pristupe koji se koriste umjesto tradicionalne medicine i koriste se za liječenje ili ublažavanje bolesti. Temeljna filozofija komplementarne i alternativne medicine uključuje holističku skrb koja se fokusira na liječenje čovjeka kao cjelovite osobe. Beskrajne raznolikosti praksi znanstveno su nedokazane i slabo prihvaćene od strane medicinskih autoriteta, stoga u svrhu organiziranja strategije za istraživanje KAM pristupa, Nacionalni instituti za zdravlje SAD-a grupirali su KAM metode u 5 glavnih grupa: biološki utemeljene prakse, manipulativni i tjelesni pristupi, medicina uma i tijela, alternativni medicinski sustavi i energetska medicina. Potaknuta osobnim iskustvom i viđanjem navedenih situacija, moj je cilj bio istražiti kolika je zapravo sama informiranost oboljelih o komplementarnim i alternativnim metodama, koja je učestalost korištenja, koje su metode odabrane kao najčešće među oboljelima te na koji način saznaju o njima. Istraživanje je provedeno putem Google obrasca, u razdoblju od od 17. listopada 2022.g. do 17.svibnja 2023.g. Istraživanje je bilo dobrovoljno i anonimno, a sudjelovali su onkološki bolesnici u Republici Hrvatskoj, većim dijelom sjevernog dijela zbog grupa i područja društvenih mreža u kojim je obrazac dijeljen. Obuhvaćeno je 410 ispitanika. Upitnik za provedbu istraživanja sastojao se od 3 dijela: općeg dijela kojim su se prikupljali sociodemografski podaci (spol, dob, stupanj obrazovanja, status zaposlenosti i sredina u kojoj ispitanik živi), drugog dijela s pitanjima usmjerenim na bolest i vrstu liječenja kojoj su ispitanici bili podvrgnuti te trećeg dijela, pitanja koja su bila usmjerena na informiranost ispitanika i raširenost primjene komplementarnih i alternativnih metoda. Rezultati pokazuju velik broj ispitanika koji su informirani o komplementarnim metodama, no s druge strane, dio oboljelih koji nisu ni čuli za ovakve metode liječenja. Najčešće se koriste prirodne metode i to u obliku fitoterapije, dok se nešto manje koriste duhovne metode. Podatak koji zabrinjava je da oboljeli najčešće ne obavještavaju nikog o korištenju komplementarnih i alternativnih metoda liječenja; vidljiv je značajan postotak od 53.20 %. Takav podatak govori u prilog tome da je i dalje prisutna barijera u odnosu zdravstveni tim – bolesnik, što je razlog straha bolesnika o diskusiji i eventualnim interesima o nekim drugim metodama liječenja koje nisu dio konvencionalne medicine.Complementary and alternative health and medical practice KAM is a group of different medical and health systems, practices and products that are not currently considered part of conventional medicine. Alternative medicine refers to therapeutic approaches that are used instead of traditional medicine and are used to treat or alleviate disease. The underlying philosophy of complementary and alternative medicine includes holistic care that focuses on treating the person as a whole person. The endless variety of practices are scientifically unproven and poorly accepted by medical authorities, so in order to organize a strategy for researching KAM approaches, the US National Institutes of Health grouped KAM methods into 5 main groups: biologically based practices, manipulative and body approaches, medicine mind and body, alternative medical systems and energy medicine. Motivated by personal experience and seeing the above-mentioned situations, my goal was to investigate how well informed patients are about complementary and alternative methods, what is the frequency of use, which methods are chosen as the most common among patients and how they learn about them. The research was conducted using a Google form, in the period from October 17, 2022. until May 17, 2023. The research was voluntary and anonymous, and oncology patients in the Republic of Croatia participated, mostly in the northern part due to the groups and areas of social networks in which the form was shared. 410 respondents were included. The questionnaire for the implementation of the research consisted of 3 parts: a general part that collected sociodemographic data (gender, age, level of education, employment status and the environment in which the respondent lives), the second part with questions focused on the disease and the type of treatment the respondents received subject to the third part, questions that were aimed at the information of the respondents and the widespread use of complementary and alternative methods. The results show a large number of respondents who are informed about complementary methods, but on the other hand, a part of patients who have not even heard of such treatment methods. Most often, natural methods are used in the form of phytotherapy, while spiritual methods are used somewhat less. A worrying fact is that patients usually do not inform anyone about the use of complementary and alternative treatment methods; a significant percentage of 53.20% is visible. Such information speaks in favor of the fact that there is still a barrier in the relationship between the healthcare team and the patient, which is the reason for the patient's fear of discussion and possible interests in other methods of treatment that are not part of conventional medicine