title: How do medical students engaging in elective courses on acupuncture and homeopathy differ from unselected students? A survey.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  We aimed to investigate whether students at German medical schools participating in elective courses on acupuncture and homeopathy differ from an unselected group of students regarding attitudes and personality traits.
  
  
  METHODS
  Elective courses on acupuncture and homeopathy in the academic half-year 2013/14 all over Germany were identified and participants invited to fill in a questionnaire including nineteen questions on attitudes towards Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), orientation towards science, care and status orientation, and a short validated instrument (Big-Five-Inventory-10) to measure personality traits (extraversion, neuroticism, openness, conscientiousness, and agreeableness). Participants of a mandatory family medicine course at one university served as unselected control group.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Two hundred twenty and 113 students from elective courses on acupuncture and homeopathy, respectively, and 315 control students participated (response rate 93%). Students participating in elective courses had much more positive attitudes towards CAM, somewhat lower science and status orientation, and somewhat higher care orientation than control group students (all p-values for three-group comparisons < 0.001). There were no differences between the three groups regarding personality traits with the exception of lower values for agreeableness in controls (p = 0.009).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings of this study show that attitudes of students participating in elective courses on acupuncture or homeopathy at German medical schools differ to a considerable degree from the attitudes of unselected students.
authors.affiliation: Institute of General Practice, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technical University of Munich, Orleansstrasse 47, 81667, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jocham
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Psychology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Levente
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kriston
authors.affiliation: TUM Medical Education Center, TUM School of Medicine, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Pascal O
authors.initials: PO
authors.lastname: Berberat
authors.affiliation: Institute of General Practice, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technical University of Munich, Orleansstrasse 47, 81667, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Antonius
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.affiliation: Institute of General Practice, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technical University of Munich, Orleansstrasse 47, 81667, Munich, Germany. klaus.linde@tum.de.
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2902-970X
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Linde
mesh_terms: D026881:Acupuncture / Q000193:education*; D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006705:Homeopathy / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Attitudes; Complementary and alternative medicine; Medical education; Personality traits