Prayer-for-health and complementary alternative medicine use among Malaysian breast cancer patients during chemotherapy

Abstract

Background: The inclusion of prayer-for-health (PFH) in the definition of complementary alternative medicine (CAM) has resulted in higher levels of CAM use. The objective of this study was to assess PFH and CAM use among breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed at two chemotherapy providers. Patients were questioned about use of three categories of CAM, mind-body practices (MBPs), natural products (NPs) and traditional medicine (TM). PFH was also examined separately from CAM to better characterise the patterns of CAM and PFH used during chemotherapy.

Association of Knowledge and Cultural Perceptions of Malaysian Women with Delay in Diagnosis and Treatment of Breast Cancer: a Systematic Review

“…Most women wanted to have power over their treatment, had strong beliefs in the benefits in CAM and used it as their last hope. They also had previous bad experiences with modern medicine which caused them to doubt modern treatment (Norsa'adah et al, 2011;Chui et al, 2014;Samah and Ahmadian, 2014). In addition, they are more comfortable with using CAM since traditional healers or shamans are considered to be more patientfriendly (Norsa'adah et al, 2011).…”

“…Approximately 70.7% of the patients were users of multiple therapies, which will be discussed further later. CAM users were more likely to be Malays, have a higher level of education, higher household income, and have advanced cancer than non-CAM users (Chui et al, 2014). Samah and Ahmadian through their study also showed that the absence of spousal or social support leads to increased use of CAM, and that such patients were also less likely to have their chemotherapy on schedule than non-CAM users (Samah and Ahmadian, 2014).…”

“…It was revealed that the prevalence of CAM use ranges from 51.0 to 88.3%, depending on the inclusion or exclusion of prayer-forhealth (a form of mind-body practice) (Chui et al, 2014). It was found that exclusion of prayer-for-health significantly reduces the prevalence of overall CAM use (Chui et al, 2014). Approximately 70.7% of the patients were users of multiple therapies, which will be discussed further later.…”

“…Samah and Ahmadian through their study also showed that the absence of spousal or social support leads to increased use of CAM, and that such patients were also less likely to have their chemotherapy on schedule than non-CAM users (Samah and Ahmadian, 2014). This leads to elevated rates of delayed or interrupted breast cancer treatment due to frequent visits to traditional healers (Chui et al, 2014). Another important point highlighted by Samah and Ahmadian was that only a small proportion of breast cancer survivors (25%) actually received information on CAM from healthcare professionals.…”

“…Apart from that, several articles highlighted the use of complementary alternative medicine (CAM) or traditional methods (Hisham and Yip, 2004;Leong et al, 2007;Chui et al, 2014). Hisham and Yip as well as Khan et al pointed out that ignorance, fear and denial were the reasons that women seek alternative and traditional medicine (Hisham and Yip, 2004;Khan et al, 2010).…”