The study of Birjand medical student's attitude toward types of complementary medicine

Despite recent increase in the use of complementary medicine among general population and patients، there are a few studies about physicians’ attitude in this area. This study was carried out to study medical students’ attitude toward complementary medicine. This cross-sectional study was carried out using a researcher-made questionnaire regarding medical students` attitude about complementary medicine on 110 first and last year medical students of Birjand University of Medical Sciences in 2011. Data was analyzed by SPSS 16 using descriptive statistics، Chi-square، and independent t-test at significant level of 0. 05. 63 (57. 3%) of students were in their first year of education. In the studied students، the most positive attitude was toward prayer therapy (14. 5%)، the most average attitude was about herbal medicine (73. 6%) and the weakest attitude was toward leech therapy (85. 5%). There was significantly higher week attitude in last year students comparing to first year students about herbal medicine (31. 9% versus 7. 9 %)، leech therapy (93. 6% versus 79. 4 %) and dry cupping (87. 2% versus 68. 3 %). R esults showed that the majority of students had an average to positive attitude about complementary medicine، b ut negative attitude toward complementary medicine، especially Iranian traditional medicine، was higher in last year students. Some educational courses for being familiar with complementary medicine can be useful.