Özet:

Objective: The aim of the study was to explore the relationship between traditional /complementary medical practices and health literacy and health perception in adults. Methods: The study was conducted as a descriptive type between the ages 18-65 who visited to 4 family health centers in Istanbul at November and December 2017 n = 214 . "Volunteerism" was the basis for participation. The data of the study was collected with demographic questionnaire, Traditional and Complementary Medicine Attitude Scale, The Adult Health Literacy Scale and The Health Perception Scale. Data entry and analysis was done by using he arithmetic mean, Mann Whitney U, Correlation and One Sample-KS tests in SPSS 23 program. The necessary permission to conduct the study was taken by Marmara University Institute of Health Sciences Ethics Committee. Results: The average age of the participants is 32.9 ± 11.7 and 71.7% are females. Of the participants 55.6% of the them are university graduated and 81.8% are in the middle income group. Among the participants 79.9% haven’t got chronic disease and 39.3% of participants used traditional/complementary medicine method. The most common method used by 34.6% of the users is herbal methods followed by massage methods with 17.8% and cupping with 8.9%. The least used methods are hypnosis method with 1.4% followed by larval applications with 0.9% and reflexology method with 0.5%. Participants received an average of 103.99 ± 22.03 points out of 189 points from Traditional and Complementary Medicine Attitude Scale. There was a weak negative correlation between The Adult Health Literacy Scale and Traditional and Complementary Medicine Attitude Scale r = -19; p< .01 . On "Complementary and Alternative Medicine" dimension a weak-moderate negative correlation r = -23; p< .01 , on “Dissatisfaction with Conventional Medicine” dimension a moderate negative correlation r = -28; p< .01 and on “Holistic Balance” dimension no correlation p> .05 was found between The Adult Health Literacy Scale and Traditional and Complementary Medicine Attitude Scale. There was no significant relationship between Traditional and Complementary Medicine Attitude Scale and The Health Perception Scale p>.05 . Conclusion: The results of the study indicated that as adult literacy levels increase, attitudes towards traditional and complementary medicine is decreased. In the light of this conclusion, increasing the level of health literacy may be a preventive measure of using unproven traditional /complementary medicine methods.

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