Prevalence and Correlates of Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use among Hypertensive Patients in Gondar Town, Ethiopia

Background. Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies are being widely used by hypertensive patients worldwide. However, evidences regarding CAM use by hypertensive patients in Ethiopia are limited. This study aimed at assessing prevalence and correlates of CAM use among hypertensive patients attending ambulatory clinic at Gondar University Referral Hospital (GURH), Ethiopia. Methods. A cross-sectional study was employed on 423 patients visiting GURH. Descriptive statistics and bivariate and multivariate logistic regression tools were used to analyze/come up with the prevalence and correlates of CAM use. Results. The prevalence of CAM use in our study was found to be 67.8% and herbal based medicine was the most commonly utilized CAM therapies. Majority of CAM users (70.2%) did not disclose CAM use for their physician. However, nearly half of CAM users (48.4%) were satisfied with the result of CAM use. Conclusions. The higher prevalence of CAM use among hypertensive patients coupled with a very low disclosure rate to their health care providers can have a marked potential to cause ineffective hypertensive management and adverse effects due to CAM use. Health care providers should be open to discussing the use of CAM with their patients as it will lead to better health outcome.