Complementary Medicine in Cancer Patients in The View of Health Literacy Volume 3 - Issue 2

Dénes Kleiner^1,2, Hegyi Gabriella³*, István Horváth¹, Mária Matuz⁴, Magdolna Dank² and Balázs Hankó¹

¹Department of Pharmacy Administration, Semmelweis University, Hungary

²Semmelweis University Oncology Center, Hungary

³Health Science Dept., Pecs University, Pecs, Hungary

⁴Department of Clinical Pharmacy, University of Szeged, Hungary

Received:June 02, 2021   Published: June 25, 2021

*Corresponding author: Hegyi Gabriella, Pecs University, CAM Department, Doctoral School, Hungary

DOI: 10.32474/OAJCAM.2021.03.000156

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Abstract

While nowadays anticancer therapies had gone through fundamental changes, health care providers must pay attention to the emerging utilization of dietary supplements, functional foods and further complementary and alternative therapies. The appropriate health literacy is a key element in the management of cancer patients’ life too, so it has worthwhile implication in the questions of complementary and anternative therapies. Hence, we wanted to measure the food supplements, functional foods and such agent’s utilization and basic knowledge about them in the Semmelweis University Oncology Center. To our questionnaire 71 patients answered. Due to their knowledge about their antitumor therapies, we divided participants to two groups (N=41 for those, who know their therapies; N=30 for those, who do not know it). However, only 43.9% of those, who know their therapies were precise about it, but grouping was not modified by this data. Tendentious differences were seen between the two groups in the vitamin and/or mineral containing food supplements, herb and/or mushroom containing food supplements, functional foods, special diets, utilization of homeopathy, but significantly more people tried deuterium depleted water in the group of those, who know their therapies. All in all, the type of food supplements etc. seems to be a more prominent factor where from the patient heard about it, in the further sources of information, and in the procurement. Still, health care professionals have a significant role in the good patient education and health literacy, because patients better ask their physician about these products while they mainly purchase them in pharmacies, hence pharmacists have a noteworthy role in the revision of harmful therapies.

Keywords: Oncology; Dietary Supplements; Complementary Medicine; Health Literacy

Abstract| Introduction| Materials And Methods| Results| Discussion| Conflict of Interest| Funding| Acknowledgement| References |