A Survey of Medical Students' Opinions about Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Objective： To determine second, third and fourth-year medical students' opinions and knowledge related to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in a school with no requirement or elective course on the subject. Study Design： A questionnaire was offered to second, third and fourth-year medical students of the Medical College of Kosin University from August 7th, through August 30th, 2003. Results： Most students had been exposed to CAM therapies, knew that the majority of the South Korean public was using CAM, believed that some CAM interventions were useful, and did not believe CAM therapies were a threat to public health. Only one fifth of the students(22.5％) disagreed that they had to have requirement or elective course on CAM in their curriculum. Most students had insufficient knowledge or understanding of the safety or lack of it for ten of the more common CAM modalities. Most respondents thought these interventions were useful, but would not refer a patient nor dissuade a patient from seeking out such interventions. Conclusion： Medical students in this school self-identified an interest about the clinical usefulness of ten CAM modalities, but did not have sufficient knowledge about the safety for ten of the more common CAM modalities. Including CAM topics in the medical school curriculum would better prepare physicians to respond to patient inquiries about CAM and thereby to fulfill their role as patient advocates.