Background: The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) for treatment purposes in Saudi Arabia is a common practice by the public. Studies have found that using these products is not always a safe practice. Research has showed that many of CAM products could result in fatal adverse effects either when used alone or combined with conventional medicine. Health institutions are currently working on increasing the awareness of these adverse effects and the proper utilization of CAM, however addressing the knowledge gap among healthcare professionals is still an area of demand. Thus, this study aims to assess the knowledge and attitude of primary and specialized physicians at King Abdulaziz Medical City KAMC about CAM. Method: This is a cross sectional study based on an interview structured questionnaire that was validated through pilot testing and distributed among physicians in the following fields at KAMC; internal medicine, family medicine, Surgery, pediatrics, and obstetrics and gynecology. We included physicians from both genders, any nationality, and excluded all physicians who have not been practicing for more than one year. The minimum sample size required was 231. All the data were entered and analyzed by SPSS software version 21. A confidence interval of 95% was used and a P value less than or equal.05 is significant.
Results: The research team was able to interview 220 physicians from different specialties and occupation with a response rate of 95.5%. The overall results were that the majority of participants (73.7%) had a poor knowledge about CAM. Also, it was found that there is no correlation between the level of knowledge and the specialty (P=0.26). Unlike Saudi physicians who believe in the beneficence of CAM, non-Saudis tend to have a more negative attitude toward this practice (P= 0.023). Resident and newly practicing medicine physicians had more positive attitude toward CAM compared to physicians with long history of practice (P=0.037). Almost 50% of our participants have obtained some knowledge about CAM from websites, books, and EBM articles. 81.1 % of the physicians insisted on the importance of receiving formal education about CAM. Conclusion: In conclusion we recommend that education about CAM to be given in the form of seminars, lectures, or part of the medical school curriculum. We also emphasize that this education should not be given to a certain medical specialties as our result showed that the knowledge and attitude toward CAM does not have a correlation with specialty.