Table 4.
Physicians' characteristics and their CAM knowledge according to their specialty.
| Characteristics | Specialty group | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G1 Oncology, hematology, pain management, radiotherapy, anaesthesiology | G2 Internal medicine, geriatric medicine, infectious diseases | G3 Surgical specialties | G4 Nuclear medicine, no specialization, other | ||||
| No. (%) | No. (%) | p-value 1* | No. (%) | p-value 2* | No. (%) | p-value 3* | |
| Gender | 0.5 | 0.06 | 0.2 | ||||
| Female | 88 (49.7) | 59 (53.2) | 24 (36.4) | 49 (58.3) | |||
| Male | 89 (50.3) | 52 (46.8) | 42 (63.6) | 35 (41.7) | |||
| Age | 0.001 | 0.6 | 0.6 | ||||
| <40 years | 66 (37.3) | 66 (59.5) | 29 (43.9) | 28 (33.3) | |||
| 40–65 years | 107 (60.5) | 43 (38.7) | 35 (53) | 55 (65.5) | |||
| 65 years | 4 (2.3) | 2 (1.8) | 2 (3) | 1 (1.2) | |||
| Time elapsed since specialization | <0.0001 | 0.1 | 0.5 | ||||
| <5 years | 39 (23.2) | 51 (52.6) | 8 (16.7) | 20 (23.8) | |||
| 5–10 years | 36 (21.4) | 5 (5.2) | 6 (12.5) | 23 (27.4) | |||
| ≥10 years | 93 (55.4) | 41 (42.3) | 34 (70.8) | 41 (48.8) | |||
| Workplace location | <0.0001 | 0.8 | 0.8 | ||||
| Northern Italy | 61 (34.5) | 17 (15.3) | 21 (31.8) | 26 (31) | |||
| Central Italy | 20 (11.3) | 9 (8.1) | 7 (10.6) | 11 (13.1) | |||
| Southern Italy | 96 (54.2) | 85 (76.6) | 38 (57.6) | 47 (56) | |||
| Institution | <0.0001 | <0.0001 | 0.004 | ||||
| Research hospital | 75 (42.4) | 8 (7.2) | 15 (22.7) | 36 (42.9) | |||
| University | 47 (26.6) | 72 (64.9) | 39 (59.1) | 36 (42.9) | |||
| General hospital | 55 (31.1) | 31 (27.9) | 12 (18.2) | 12 (14.3) | |||
| Are you involved in research activity? | 0.001 | 0.9 | 0.9 | ||||
| Yes | 106 (59.9) | 44 (39.6) | 40 (60.6) | 50 (59.5) | |||
| No | 71 (40.1) | 67 (60.4) | 26 (39.4) | 34 (40.5) | |||
| Do you know what CAM stands for? | 0.01 | 0.1 | 0.3 | ||||
| Yes | 102 (57.6) | 47 (42.3) | 31 (47) | 43 (51.2) | |||
| No | 75 (42.4) | 64 (57.7) | 35 (53) | 41 (48.8) | |||
| Have you ever heard about alternative and complementary medicine? | <0.0001 | 0.03 | 0.001 | ||||
| Yes | 154 (88) | 78 (70.3) | 50 (76.9) | 60 (71.4) | |||
| No | 21 (12) | 33 (29.7) | 15 (23.1) | 24 (28.6) | |||
| Should patients be treated exclusively with CM? | 0.1 | 0.06 | 0.02 | ||||
| Yes | 58 (32.8) | 41 (36.9) | 32 (48.5) | 28 (33.3) | |||
| No | 92 (52) | 46 (41.4) | 24 (36.4) | 32 (38.1) | |||
| I don't know | 27 (15.3) | 24 (21.6) | 10 (15.2) | 24 (28.6) | |||
| Do you suggest CAM to your patients? | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.6 | ||||
| Yes | 102 (57.6) | 55 (49.5) | 33 (50) | 51 (60.7) | |||
| No | 75 (42.4) | 56 (50.5) | 33 (50) | 33 (39.3) | |||
| Do you discuss CAM use with your patients? | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.1 | ||||
| Yes | 87 (49.2) | 51 (45.9) | 25 (37.9) | 30 (35.7) | |||
| No | 74 (41.8) | 55 (49.5) | 37 (56.1) | 46 (54.8) | |||
| I don't know | 16 (9) | 5 (4.5) | 4 (6.1) | 8 (9.5) | |||
| Could CAM have a role in CM? | 0.005 | 0.3 | 0.09 | ||||
| Yes | 86 (48.6) | 37 (33.3) | 26 (39.4) | 34 (40.5) | |||
| No | 33 (18.6) | 38 (34.2) | 18 (27.3) | 11 (13.1) | |||
| I don't know | 58 (32.8) | 36 (32.4) | 22 (33.3) | 39 (46.4) | |||
| CAM could play a role as: | 0.9 | 0.4 | 0.3 | ||||
| Alternative medicine | 11 (6.2) | 10 (9) | 2 (3) | 4 (4.8) | |||
| Complementary therapy | 88 (49.7) | 55 (49.5) | 34 (51.5) | 42 (50) | |||
| Integrated medicine | 40 (22.6) | 26 (23.4) | 18 (27.3) | 23 (27.4) | |||
| I don't know | 38 (21.5) | 20 (18) | 12 (18.2) | 15 (17.9) | |||
| CAM use by participants | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.7 | ||||
| Yes | 43 (25.9) | 27 (25.5) | 19 (31.7) | 23 (31.9) | |||
| No | 123 (74.1) | 79 (74.5) | 41 (68.3) | 49 (68.1) | |||
*
P1; P2; P3: p-values of Pearson's chi-square test comparing G1 physicians with G2 physicians (P1); with G2 physicians (P2); and with G3 physicians (P3).
Bold values indicate statistically significant p-value.