Knowledge and Attitude about Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Perceptions of Brazilian Health care Students

Objective: This study aimed to analyze the knowledge and attitude about Complementary and Integrative Health of Brazilian students of the health area. Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted in the period from February to December 2012, with 163 students from two universities of different regions of Brazil. The Health Promotion in University Evaluation Instrument (IAPSU) was used to collect data about Complementary and Integrative Health. Results: With regard to the knowledge of the students about the concept of CIH, 47.2% of the students, being 52% of the northeast students and 43.3% of the southeast students, claimed to understand this concept, with no statistical significance when comparing the institutions (p>0.05). When asked if they knew the 20 different practices listed in the questionnaire, there was greater knowledge about acupuncture (87.1%), followed by medicinal herbs (82.8%), massage (80.9%), meditation (80.9%) and diets (80.3%). The practices most widely used by the students, however, were massage (38%), relaxation (36.8%), herbs (33.7%), diets (29.4%) and homeopathy (27.6%). Conclusion: It was concluded that the knowledge and use of CIH practices by students of different health courses in two Brazilian universities was limited and that the most known of these were acupuncture, herbal remedies, massage, meditation and diets, with, however, massage, relaxation, medicinal herbs, diets and homeopathy being more used.