Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Jul 1;14(3):166-172.
doi: 10.5152/ejbh.2018.3929. eCollection 2018 Jul.

Use of Alternative Medicine Is Delaying Health-Seeking Behavior by Bangladeshi Breast Cancer Patients

Khursheda Akhtar  1 , Khodeza Akhtar  2 , M Mizanur Rahman  3
Affiliations

Use of Alternative Medicine Is Delaying Health-Seeking Behavior by Bangladeshi Breast Cancer Patients

Khursheda Akhtar et al. Eur J Breast Health. .

Abstract

Objective: Various treatment options including alternative medicine is available in underdeveloped countries which attracts easily the community with low profile. This study aimed to find perception of the use and mode use of alternative medicine (AM) by Bangladeshi Breast cancer patients which may influence timely treatment seeking.

Materials and methods: A cross sectional study was performed to determine the spectrum in use of alternative medicine and compare the use of alternative medicine with their delay in presentation. Patients were selected randomly from July 2015-June 2016 in a specialized public cancer hospital of Dhaka city. Face to face interview was taken from diagnosed breast cancer patients, collected in pre-structured data sheet, SPSS was used for statical tests.

Results: Out of 200 respondents, about half of the respondents 46.5% (93) first sought help to alternative medicine. Most of them 86.02 %(80) preferred to use homeopathy. The mean duration of use alternative medicine was 2.9±4.7 months, mean patient delay was 4 months. Use of alternative medicine was found significantly (p<0.05) associated with patient delay (p=0.019), provider delay (p<0.0001), total delay (p<0.0001), use of homeopathy (p<0.0001) and residence (p=0.014). Logistic regression analysis showed that alternative medicine was 4 times more likely to cause delay help seeking (OR=4.353; 95% CI 2.2.7-8.587) p<0.0001. The co-efficient r was 0.488, p<0.0001 and there was a positive correlation among delay and duration of use of alternative medicine.

Conclusion: Seeking medical help other than orthodox available treatment leads to delayed presentation by the breast cancer patients.

Keywords: Alternative medicine; breast cancer; delay health seeking.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Dispalying the patients selected (n=323)
Figure 2
Figure 2
Correlation between delay and duration of local treatment used (N=200)
Figure 3
Figure 3
Two way analysis of variance (Two way ANOVA) between delay, stage of cancer and cause of delay due to alternative medicine (N=200)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Chui PL, Abdullah KL, Wong LP, Taib NA. Prayer for health and complementary alternative medicine use among Malaysian breast cancer patients during chemotherapy. BMC Complement Altern Med. 2014;14:425–436. doi: 10.1186/1472-6882-14-425. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Burstein HJ, Gelber S, Guadagnoli E, Weeks JC. Use of Alternative Medicine By Women With Early-Stage Breast Cancer. N Engl J Med. 1999;340:1733–1739. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199906033402206. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Lee MM, Lin SS, Wrensch SR, Adler SR, Eisenberg D. Alternative Therapies Used by Women With breast Cancer in Four Ethnic Population. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2000;92:42–47. doi: 10.1093/jnci/92.1.42. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ghani A. Present State-Of-The Art Of Traditional Medicine Practice In Bangladesh. file:///E:/Healthsystem/TraditionalMedicine and Materi Medica Research Center (TMRC)
    1. Milazzo S, Russell N, Ernst E. Efficacy of homeopathic therapy in cancer treatment. Eur J Cancer. 2006;42:282–289. doi: 10.1016/j.ejca.2005.09.025. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources