Investigation of Attitudes Toward Complementary and Alternative Medicine among Young Adults.

Objective: This study was designed to investigate the attitudes of individuals aged 18-24 towards complementary and alternative medicine. Material-Method: The sample of the cross-sectional study, an analytical type of research, consisted of 178 people aged 18- 24, with at least primary education, technological devices, and the ability to use internet networks. The data were collected using the Socio-Demographic Information Form and the Complementary, Alternative, and Conventional Medicine Attitudes Scale (CACMAS). Descriptive statistics, independent groups t-test, ANOVA, Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis, Tukey tests, and regression analysis were used to analyze the data. The significance level was taken as 0.05 in the interpretation of the results. Results: Several factors were found to positively impact mean scale scores (p < 0.05), including having a large family, perceiving complementary or alternative medicine practices as beneficial, recommending these practices to close relatives or friends. Additionally, it has been found that believing complementary medicine practices to be more beneficial than treatments provided by healthcare institutions also positively influenced scale score averages (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The study found that around half of participants aged 18-24 used complementary and alternative medicine practices, and that some personal attitudes influenced attitudes towards complementary medicine. Hence, there exists a necessity to disseminate accurate information regarding the appropriate utilization of complementary medicine practices, ensuring their application by qualified individuals, and to engage the younger people in such initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]