Parental beliefs and practice of spiritual methods for their sick children at a tertiary care hospital of Pakistan- a cross sectional questionnaire study

BACKGROUND: Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) comprises a variety of health care systems, practices, and products that are not usually thought to be part of allopathic medicine. This study investigated the parental beliefs and practices for use of spiritual methods in the treatment and early recovery of their children. METHODS: We performed a cross-sectional, descriptive study with convenience sampling of parents/caregivers of sick children who were admitted to the Children’s Hospital in Multan. A trained interviewer collected the data. RESULTS: A total of 1280 forms were analyzed. The majority of respondents were mothers (1053, 82.4 %), they resided in Multan (817, 63.8 %), and were not educated (754, 58.9 %). A total of 420 (32.8 %) respondents had a low socioeconomic background, 601 (47 %) were middle class, and 259 (20.2 %) were upper class. Grandmothers/mothers advised spiritual methods in the majority of respondents (605, 85.9 %). The parents used a variety of spiritual methods in 704 (55 %) children. Economic status and education showed an inverse relation with the use of CAM. A total of 809 (63.2 %) respondents believed that only a drug would heal the disease, while 575 (44.9 %) believed that spiritual methods have a 25 %–50 % role in healing. A total of 1269 (99.1 %) respondents believed that allopathic drugs are needed for healing, while only 0.9 % considered otherwise. CONCLUSION: The majority of people believe that CAM is a contributory factor towards healing and does not interfere with allopathic treatment. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12906-016-0986-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.