C0272 - Comparing the Use and Acceptance of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Gastroenterology and Gynecology

Joanne Song, MD, Priyal Fadadu, MD, MS, Brooke Fenske, MD, Isabel Green, MD, Ying Gibbens, MD, PhD, Lindsey Philpot, PhD, MPH, Xiao Jing (Iris) Wang, MD
Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN

Introduction: Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) is gaining popularity across medical specialties including Gastroenterology (GI) as a means to augment conventional therapies in managing complex, chronic conditions such as cancer and disorders of gut-brain interaction. The implementation and compliance of such therapy relies heavily on baseline patient acceptance and prior experience. We sought to assess the current opinion of CAM in Gastroenterology compared to Gynecology in a tertiary care setting to identify any gaps in the use and acceptance of CAM.

Methods: 218 general GI patients and 85 gynecology patients enrolled consecutively prior to clinic visits participated in a survey evaluating their prior experience with and attitudes towards 1) standard therapies such surgery and medications, 2) manipulative practices such as chiropractic and massages, 3) mind-body interventions such as psychotherapy, yoga and hypnotherapy, 4) diet such as diet modifications, supplements and probiotics, and 5) cannabis. The questionnaires were printed in hard copies and voluntarily completed. The deidentified responses were manually entered into an online database for analysis.

Results: Gynecology patients were more likely to have used CAM compared to GI patients especially in the categories of manipulative practices (p=< 0.001), cannabis (p=< 0.001), and mind-body interventions such as yoga (p=< 0.001) and psychotherapy (p=0.01). There was no significant difference between the two specialties in willingness to try an intervention in any treatment categories including the conventional therapies. Patient demographics varied widely based on age, gender and presence of comorbidities such as anxiety, depression, migraine, and endometriosis (Table 1). Interestingly, the prevalence of irritable bowel syndrome was not significantly different between the two specialties.

Discussion: GI patients, compared to gynecology, were similarly willing to try, but much less likely to have used CAM. The underuse of CAM in GI could be related to underlying socioeconomic and medical conditions that vary by specialty. For example, gynecology patients in our study were younger and had more comorbidities than our GI counterparts. More studies and educational interventions are recommended to help narrow the gap between the acceptance and use of CAM in Gastroenterology.




Disclosures:


Joanne Song, MD, Priyal Fadadu, MD, MS, Brooke Fenske, MD, Isabel Green, MD, Ying Gibbens, MD, PhD, Lindsey Philpot, PhD, MPH, Xiao Jing (Iris) Wang, MD. C0272 - Comparing the Use and Acceptance of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Gastroenterology and Gynecology, ACG 2022 Annual Scientific Meeting Abstracts. Charlotte, NC: American College of Gastroenterology.