Complementary and alternative medicine as represented in the HIV/AIDS body of knowledge: a bibliometric analysis

Abstract

Although the HIV/AIDS epidemic began more than twenty years ago, there still is no cure for the disease and no vaccine to prevent infection. As with the general population, individuals with HIV/AIDS have sought care using a variety of traditional and nontraditional approaches. The popularity of complementary and alternative interventions among the HIV/AIDS community continues. To understand better the distribution of the HIV/AIDS body of knowledge concerning complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), this study sought to (1) examine the literature specific to the use of complementary and alternative medicine where HIV/AIDS is concerned to determine publication patterns; (2) determine the degree of overlap among bibliographic citation databases that index the literature concerning the use of CAM practices in treating HIV/AIDS; and (3) facilitate access to this body of literature.