The Prevalence and Reasons of Tendency to Traditional Medicine

Introduction: Complementary and alternative medicine refers to a group of medical, health, and medical care products that are typically other than conventional medicine (Western medicine). Due to the fact that the use of traditional medicine in Iran, like many other countries in the world, is expanding, the present study was conducted to investigate the prevalence and reasons for resorting to traditional medicine.

Methods: This study was performed on 370 clients of Baqaeipour Medical Center in Yazd Province. Sampling was made available and data collected by a researcher-made questionnaire. Data were analyzed by SPSS software version 23.

Results: The results of the present study showed that 97.3% of people chose traditional medicine after 89.2% due to lower cost and 87% due to easy and faster access to traditional medicine. A significant point in this study was that a significant percentage of clients (44.6%) believed that doctors did not give patients time and prescribed medication quickly. This means that patients are dissatisfied with the time a doctor prescribes for them.

Conclusion: Most of the reasons that people cite for turning to traditional and complementary medicine are pragmatic, in other words, they refer to the field of practical function. However, further studies are needed.

Keywords: Outbreaks; Causes of tendency; Yazd; Traditional Medicine.