IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jocnur/v21y2012i21-22p3198-3204.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Use of complementary and alternative therapy among patients with rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis

Author

Listed:
  • Nada Alaaeddine
  • Jad Okais
  • Liliane Ballane
  • Rafic M Baddoura

Abstract

Aims and objectives. We wanted to assess the prevalence of complementary and alternative therapy use among patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis in the Lebanese population and to determine the perceived efficacy and side effects of complementary and alternative therapy in the treatment of these diseases. Background. Complementary and alternative therapy has become popular among patients with chronic illnesses because of its widespread use. Rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis are two diseases associated with severe pain, inflammation and limited activity. Although both are quite common in Lebanon, no studies were conducted in our country to portray complementary and alternative therapy use in their treatment. Design. Descriptive cross‐sectional study. Methods. Conducted individualised questionnaire‐based interviews among 250 adult patients, ranging between the ages of 20–90 years and diagnosed with either rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis. The questionnaire included demographic information, clinical information, use of conventional therapies and complementary and alternative therapy, and the disease status before and after complementary and alternative therapy use. Results. Fifty‐eight (23·2%) patients used complementary and alternative therapy in addition to their conventional medications in the treatment of either rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis. Most herbal medicine users (63·8%) believed that complementary and alternative therapy was beneficial. The disease status measured by the intensity of pain, sleeping pattern and level of activities was significantly improved after using complementary and alternative therapy (p = 0·01). Forty‐eight (82·75%) patients were using herbals as complementary and alternative therapy, 14 (24·1%) of whom have sought medical care because of potential concomitant drug‐complementary and alternative therapy side effects. However, these side effects were not serious and reversible. Conclusion and recommendations. Although complementary and alternative therapy might have beneficial effects in rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis, patients should be cautious about their use and should necessarily inform their health care providers about the consumption of any products other than their conventional medicines. Relevance to clinical practice. It is quite essential for health care professionals to be knowledgeable about the use of complementary and alternative medicine therapies when providing medical care to patients with arthritis.

Suggested Citation

  • Nada Alaaeddine & Jad Okais & Liliane Ballane & Rafic M Baddoura, 2012. "Use of complementary and alternative therapy among patients with rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(21-22), pages 3198-3204, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:jocnur:v:21:y:2012:i:21-22:p:3198-3204
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2702.2012.04169.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2702.2012.04169.x
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1365-2702.2012.04169.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:jocnur:v:21:y:2012:i:21-22:p:3198-3204. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1365-2702 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.