The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Patients’ Attitudes Towards Traditional and Complementary Medicine: A Cross-Sectional Study

Objective: Our study aims to examine whether patients’ perspectives on traditional and complementary medicine (T&CM) are affected by the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Material and Methods: Our study is cross-sectional descriptive. The population consists of patients aged 18 years and older who applied to the family medicine outpatient clinic of a university hospital between January 2022 and June 2022. Healthcare workers were excluded from the study to avoid medical bias. A sociodemographic questionnaire consisting of 18 items and a T&CM Attitude Scale consisting of 27 items prepared by McFadden et al. were administered to the participants. A pilot study was conducted with 38 people. According to the pilot study results, the sample calculation was made, and the study was carried out with 450 people. Results: Post-COVID-19 scores were significantly higher in the T&CM Attitude Scale total score and in the sub-dimensions of “view of traditional medicine”, “dissatisfaction with modern medicine”, and “holistic view of health” (p<0.001). The increase in the total score on the T&CM Attitude Scale was more evident in those who had used any T&CM method before, in those whose family members had used the T&CM method, and in those who found T&CM methods useful (all p<0.001). There was no significant difference in the total score between those with COVID-19 infection and those without (p=0.215). Conclusion: The view for T&CM was found to increase positively after the COVID-19 pandemic, and this positive outlook was independent of being infected with COVID-19.