Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in a Region of Northwest Mexico

Dear Editor:

The growing utilization of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies represents one of the characteristic phenomena facing scientific medicine. ^1,2 CAM is a formal method of health care in most countries of the world with ancient civilizations, ³ and a considerable number of people are turning to CAM. The use of CAM in Mexico is not well-defined, but it is believed that, among the types of CAM, herbs are the most used. ^4,5 The aim of the present study was to carry out a cross-sectional study designed to evaluate the use of CAM in a northwest region of Mexico using a questionnaire form.

Questionnaire-based 20-minute interviews with 21 items were conducted with 384 adults, asking about their use of CAM and medicinal plants for treating illnesses. Informants were also asked to give the common name of any medicinal plants they use. The size of the sample was decided upon using proportional assignment, considering the number of inhabitants and their geographical distribution.

As indicated in Table 1, of the 384 participants, 73% of individuals (n=279) mentioned use of some CAM category: herbalist (34.7%), acupuncture (18%), and homeopathy (13.3%). The majority of subjects reported being familiar with the herbal product (97.1%), and 94.8% (n=364) mentioned having used herbal products at least once in their life. The patterns of herbal product use results are shown in Table 2. Three hundred and seventy-three (373; 97.1%) subjects reported being familiar with herbal products and 94.8% (n=364) mentioned the use of herbal products at least once in their life, but only 111 (28.9%) said it was their first option of medical treatment when they became ill, as opposed to 251 (65.4%) who selected medical service as their first line of treatment. In relation to the use frequency, the majority of respondents mentioned the use the herbal products once a month (56.8%, n=218), 2–3 times per week (29.2%, n=112), and only 9.6% (n=37) indicated daily use. The most important sources of information regarding learning about herbal products use were family members and other relatives (87%, n=334). Mass media, books related to health care, and friends were not important sources of information for herbal products use (13% in total). The most frequent conditions for using herbal products indicated by respondents were for problems in the gastrointestinal tract (95%, n=364), followed by respiratory tract (59%, n=227), colic and menstrual disorder (35%, n=134), and central nervous system (30%, n=115) among others. The majority (91.9%, n=353) of the users considered herbal products to be effective and to have a beneficial effect, 3.9% (n=11) reported it to be ineffective, and no one reported adverse side-effects. Only 4.2% of respondents mentioned that they had not used herbal products.

There have been few studies of CAM use conducted in Mexico. The evidence from those studies combined with this study confirms that the use of CAM is increasing. Mexico, with its ethnic diversity, has always had a tradition of the use of medicinal plants; however, our results show that it is also being extended to urban areas in cities around the country.