Background: The growing popularity of CAM among the public is coupled with an ongoing debate on its effectiveness, safety, and its implications on the reimbursement system. This issue is critically important for GPs, who have a "gatekeeping" role with respect to health care expenditure. GPs must be aware of medications' uses, limitations and possible adverse effects. Our objective was to explore GPs' knowledge of CAM and patterns of recommendation and practice, as well as the relationship between such patterns and GPs' life-styles.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Tuscany, a region of central Italy. One hundred percent female GPs (498) and a 60% random sample of male GPs (1310) practising in the region were contacted through a self-administered postal questionnaire followed by a postal reminder and telephone interview.
Results: Overall response rate was 82.1%. Most respondents (58%) recommended CAM but a far smaller fraction (13%) practised it; yet 36% of CAM practitioners had no certificated training. Being female, younger age, practising in larger communities, having had some training in CAM as well as following a vegetarian or macrobiotic diet and doing physical activity were independent predictors of CAM recommendation and practice. However, 42% of GPs did not recommend CAM to patients mostly because of the insufficient evidence of its effectiveness.
Conclusion: CAM knowledge among GPs is not as widespread as the public demand seems to require, and the scarce evidence of CAM effectiveness hinders its professional use among a considerable number of GPs. Sound research on CAM effectiveness is needed to guide physicians' behaviour, to safeguard patients' safety, and to assist policy-makers in planning regulations for CAM usage.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2296-8-30 | DOI Listing |
Methods Mol Biol
January 2025
Sainsbury Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Biotic stresses such as fungal pathogens significantly affect global crop yields. Understanding of the plant-pathogen interactions during root infection, especially in monocot crops, remains limited compared to fungal colonizations of dicots. The infection process of several cereal crop root-damaging fungi and oomycetes is highly similar to root infections by the pathogen model Phytophthora palmivora.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Am Geriatr Soc
December 2024
Chair of the Department of Organizational Systems and Health, University of Maryland Medical Center, University of Maryland School of Nursing, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Background: The purpose of this study was to test the impact of Function Focused Care for Acute Care Using the Evidence Integration Triangle (FFC-AC-EIT) on hospitalized patients living with dementia.
Methods: This was a clustered randomized clinical trial including 12 hospitals from two states and 455 patients living with dementia. Hospitals were randomized to FFC-AC-EIT versus FFC Education Only.
Tomography
December 2024
Hospital Regional de Alta Especialidad de la Peninsula de Yucatan, Servicios de Salud del IMSS-BIENESTAR, Merida 97130, Yucatan, Mexico.
Background: Femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) is a condition caused by abnormal contact between the femur head and the acetabulum, which damages the labrum and articular cartilage. While the prevalence and the type of impingement may vary across human groups, the variability among populations with short height or with a high prevalence of overweight has not yet been explored. Latin American studies have rarely been conducted in reference to this condition, including the Mayan and mestizo populations from the Yucatan Peninsula.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIndian J Ophthalmol
December 2024
Department of Biochemistry, Trakya University School of Pharmacy, Edirne, Turkey.
Introduction: This study aimed to investigate alterations in intravitreal microRNA and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) levels in patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) as these factors are implicated in PDR pathogenesis.
Methods: Fifty-two participants, including 26 patients with PDR and 26 controls without diabetes, were included in this study. VEGF levels were assessed using ELISA, and seven microRNAs (miRNAs) (miR-19a, miR-20b, miR-27a, miR-124, miR-126-3p, miR-146a, and miR-200b) were analyzed using quantitative real-time PCR.
J Imaging
December 2024
PolitoBIOMed Lab, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Turin, Italy.
Skin cancer is among the most prevalent cancers globally, emphasizing the need for early detection and accurate diagnosis to improve outcomes. Traditional diagnostic methods, based on visual examination, are subjective, time-intensive, and require specialized expertise. Current artificial intelligence (AI) approaches for skin cancer detection face challenges such as computational inefficiency, lack of interpretability, and reliance on standalone CNN architectures.
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