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Knowledge Attitude and Practice of traditional and complementary / alternative medicines amongst End Stage Renal Disease patients in Brunei Darussalam.

OBJECTIVE
A limited study was found in regards to knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) of traditional and complementary/alternative medicines (TCAM) amongst end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in South East Asian region including Brunei Darussalam. This study explored TCAM use amongst ESRD patients in Brunei Darussalam.


Methods
This was a cross-sectional study in a local Dialysis Centre using a bilingual self-structured questionnaire. Recruitment was done using systematic random sampling with certain inclusion criteria. All collected data were entered into Microsoft Excel 2016, and inferential statistics were carried out using R studio version 1.1.383.


RESULTS
About 40.2% were TCAM users, and this was not predictable by any sociodemographic background. Nevertheless, compliance with conventional medicine (CM) was very high (94.1%). Users had a more positive disease perception, which was not affected by length on dialysis treatment or the presence of comorbidities. TCAM was perceived to be less effective and unsafe compared to CM, and patients agreed that its use should be monitored and notified. Health supplement (70.7%) was mainly used to improve general wellness (48.5%) or to relieve fatigue (42.4%), and most practices were influenced by family (43.9%). Only a minority of users (19.5%) reported side effects as majority (80.5%) consumed TCAM and CM separately.


CONCLUSIONS
High TCAM practice showed that there are still needs that are not fulfilled. The health care professionals should always remain vigilant of its use and be attentive to attend to patients' needs.