Abstract
Objective: Gender differences in attitudes toward and knowledge of CAM among health care profession students have not been evaluated in Japan. We examined gender differences in opinions, attitudes and knowledge regarding CAM among Japanese health care profession students. Methods: The subjects of this study were 1465 health care profession students. We used a questionnaire to obtain information on knowledge, sources of information, personal use, interest, willingness to take lectures, opinions regarding effectiveness and willingness to recommend for 17 different CAM modalities. Results: The proportions of female students with sufficient knowledge or a little knowledge of massage, chiropractic, Japanese herbal medicine, aromatherapy, diet, dietary supplements, psychotherapy, yoga and music therapy were significantly higher than the proportions of male students (p < 0.05). The frequencies of personal use of aromatherapy and yoga by female students were significantly higher than those by male students (p < 0.05). Female students had high levels of interest in aromatherapy, massage, yoga and chiropractic, while male students had high levels of interest in Japanese herbal medicine, massage and psychotherapy. Both female and male students had positive opinions regarding clinical usefulness and recommendation for massage, Japanese herbal medicine and psychotherapy (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Female students are more likely to have positive and favorable attitudes toward CAM than are male students in Japan. CAM modalities that female students had an interest in and used were different from CAM modalities for which they had positive opinions regarding clinical usefulness and recommendation to patients.
