The relationship between nurses’ perceived risk of COVID-19, knowledge, use and attitudes of complementary and alternative medicine practices during the pandemic: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: The study aimed to determine the relationship between nurses’ perceived risk of COVID-19, knowledge, use and attitudes of complementary and alternative medicine practices during the pandemic. Methods: The cross-sectional research was conducted between February 2021 and March 2021 in a training and research hospital in Turkey. The sample consisted of 250 nurses who volunteered to participate in the study and met the inclusion criteria. The data were collected with the Personal Information Form, the Attitudes Towards Holistic Complementary and Alternative Medicine Questionnaire, and the COVID-19 Perceived Risk Scale. The Mann Whitney U test, Kruskal Wallis test and Spearman’s correlation test were used for data analysis. Results: The mean age of the participants was 31.17±7.65. The mean scores of Holistic Complementary Alternative Medicine Questionnaire of the participants who used complementary and alternative medicine practices to protect themselves against COVID-19 were significantly lower than the mean scores of the participants who did not use (Z=3851; p=0.018). No statistically significant correlation was found between the mean scores of Holistic Complementary Alternative Medicine Questionnaire of the participants and the COVID-19 Perceived Risk Scale (p > 0.05). Conclusion: The study revealed that the perceived COVID-19 risk level of the nurses was above the average and the level of knowledge about complementary and alternative medicine practices was low. It also determined that the nurses’ perceived risk of COVID-19 and their attitudes towards complementary and alternative medicine practices were not related to each other.