Complementary and alternative treatment methods in chronic rheumatic diseases in the Central Anatolia

Background:The aim of the study is to identify the kind of traditional practices used for the rheumatic diseases in the central Anatolia.Materials and methods:A total of 440 volunteer patients with chronic rheumatic diseases including osteoarthritis (OA), fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), spondyloarthropathy (SpA) , familial Mediterranean fever (FMF), Behcet’s disease (BD), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD) were enrolled in the study. All patients were administered a 36-item questionnaire.Results:Of the patients, 49.3 % were using CAM. Herbal medicine was the most commonly (58.1 %) preferred methods. The CAM was used by 86 (48%) of 179 patients with OA and by 51 (60%) of 85 patients with RA. The difference in the CAM use across the disease groups was not statistically significant (χ2=7.343; p=0.290). When the patients using or not using CAM were assessed according to their education status, it was found that CAM was used by 59 (66.3%) of 89 patients with university degree and indicating a statistically significantly higher number of patients from higher education status among the CAM users (χ2=17.651; p=0.001).Conclusions:Our study results suggest that among patients with rheumatic disease, patients with RA more commonly resort to the methods of CAM.