title: Complementary alternative medicine use among patients with dengue fever in the hospital setting: a cross-sectional study in Malaysia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In Malaysia, the number of reported cases of dengue fever demonstrates an increasing trend. Since dengue fever has no vaccine or antiviral treatment available, it has become a burden. Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has become one of the good alternatives to treat the patients with dengue fever. There is limited study on the use of CAM among patients with dengue fever, particularly in hospital settings. This study aims to determine the prevalence, types, reasons, expenditure, and resource of information on CAM use among patients with dengue fever.
  
  
  METHODS
  This is a descriptive, cross-sectional study of 306 patients with dengue fever, which was carried out at the dengue clinic of three hospitals. Data were analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 21.0 and logistic regression analysis was used to determine the factors associated with CAM use.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The prevalence of CAM use was 85.3% among patients with dengue fever. The most popular CAMs were isotonic drinks (85.8%), crab soup (46.7%) and papaya leaf extract (22.2%). The most common reason for CAM use was a good impression of CAM from other CAM users (33.3%). The main resource of information on CAM use among patients with dengue fever was family (54.8%). In multiple logistic regression analysis, dengue fever patients with a tertiary level are more likely to use CAM 5.8 (95% confidence interval (CI 1.62-20.45) and 3.8 (95% CI 1.12-12.93) times than secondary level and primary and below respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  CAM was commonly used by patients with dengue fever. The predictor of CAM use was a higher level of education.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Malaysia. sm_ching@upm.edu.my.|Malaysian Research Institute on Ageing, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Malaysia. sm_ching@upm.edu.my.
authors.forename: SiewMooi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ching
authors.affiliation: Malaysian Research Institute on Ageing, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Vasudevan
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ramachandran
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Hospital Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Lai Teck
authors.initials: LT
authors.lastname: Gew
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University Putra Malaysia, Serdang, 43400, Selangor, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Sazlyna Mohd Sazlly
authors.initials: SMS
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University Putra Malaysia, Serdang, 43400, Selangor, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Wan Aliaa Wan
authors.initials: WAW
authors.lastname: Sulaiman
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University Putra Malaysia, Serdang, 43400, Selangor, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Yoke Loong
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Foo
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Science, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, 43400, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Zainul Amiruddin
authors.initials: ZA
authors.lastname: Zakaria
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University Putra Malaysia, Serdang, 43400, Selangor, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Nurul Huda
authors.initials: NH
authors.lastname: Samsudin
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University Putra Malaysia, Serdang, 43400, Selangor, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Paul Chih Ming Chih
authors.initials: PCMC
authors.lastname: Lau
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy Practice, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur, 57000, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Sajesh K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Veettil
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University Putra Malaysia, Serdang, 43400, Selangor, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Fankee
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hoo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D000529:Complementary Therapies / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003715:Dengue / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D008296:Malaysia; D008297:Male; D055815:Young Adult
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