Complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) disclosure to the health care providers: a qualitative insight from Malaysian cancer patients.
This study sought to evaluate Malaysian oncology patients CAM disclosure to the health care providers. Patients were interviewed across three major Malaysian ethnic groups, Malay, Chinese and Indian. Thematic content analysis identified three themes: reasons of CAM disclosure, reasons of CAM non-disclosure and preference of CAM discussion to health care providers. Patients agreed that CAM disclosure is important to avoid any interaction with the conventional medicines. Perceived lack of physicians' knowledge & interest in CAM, fear of termination of therapy by the physicians upon CAM disclosure, and perceived simplicity of some of the CAM therapies were among the reasons of non-disclosure. Given the option of oncologists, pharmacists or nurses, patients described oncologists as the most suitable person to discuss or disclose CAM use due to confidence in their clinical skills. Understanding the underlying beliefs of patients' reluctance to disclose CAM to health care providers is important especially when they are on an ongoing treatment for cancer.
Faculty of Pharmacy, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Bertam Campus, 13200 Kepala Batas, Penang, Malaysia. maryamfarooqui.uitm@gmail.com
Maryam
M
Farooqui
Mohamed Azmi
MA
Hassali
Aishah Knight
AK
Abdul Shatar
Asrul Akmal
AA
Shafie
Muhammad Aslam
MA
Farooqui
Fahad
F
Saleem
Hisham
H
Aljadhey
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000529:Complementary Therapies / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008296:Malaysia; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D057240:Patient Preference; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D014342:Truth Disclosure; D055815:Young Adult