A quantitative survey instrument was formed based on questionnaires from previous studies [7 (link), 8 (link), 10 (link)–12 (link)]. The questionnaires were prepared and evaluated for content validity by a group of experts in the fields of nephrology, alternative medicine, clinical pharmacy and biostatisticians. The clarity and readability of the questionnaire was pre-tested in a pilot study of 16 patients. The results of the pilot sample were not included in the final analysis. Feedback from the participants was used to modify and adjust the questionnaire to reach the final version of the study tool. An additional file was provided to show detailed description of the study both in English and Arabic (Additional file 1 ).
The questionnaire consisted of four parts. The first part was about the socio-demographic characteristics of the participants, and recorded details of age, gender, marital status, residency, educational level, body mass index (BMI), family monthly income, smoking status, and occupational status. The second part was about the clinical characteristics of the participants, and recorded the duration of disease in months, duration of dialysis sessions in hours, number of dialysis per week, number of chronic diseases, and number of medications for chronic use. The third part of the questionnaire focused on the regular consumption of CAM and participants were asked to identify what they had used in the last month before the survey. CAM therapies were categorized in a list as follows: (1) Alternative Medical Systems such as acupuncture; (2) Biologically Based Therapies such as folk medicine, vitamins, or other types of herbal products; (3) Manipulative and Body-Based Methods such as massage or physical therapies (e.g. heat and cold, or rehabilitation strategies); and (4) Mind-Body Medicine such as meditation, hypnosis, walking, or music therapy [31 (link)–38 (link)]. Exorcism in Islam (ruqya) was combined with Mind-Body Medicine, to mimic previous studies [33 (link), 39 (link), 40 (link)]. The last part of the questionnaire was designed to determine the types of herbal therapies that HD patients have used in self-therapy practices. HD patients were requested to provide the native name of the herb that they used as self-therapy. This study included all herbal remedies or other CAM which was used only for improving or curing health conditions during the dialysis care period as CAM.
The questionnaire consisted of four parts. The first part was about the socio-demographic characteristics of the participants, and recorded details of age, gender, marital status, residency, educational level, body mass index (BMI), family monthly income, smoking status, and occupational status. The second part was about the clinical characteristics of the participants, and recorded the duration of disease in months, duration of dialysis sessions in hours, number of dialysis per week, number of chronic diseases, and number of medications for chronic use. The third part of the questionnaire focused on the regular consumption of CAM and participants were asked to identify what they had used in the last month before the survey. CAM therapies were categorized in a list as follows: (1) Alternative Medical Systems such as acupuncture; (2) Biologically Based Therapies such as folk medicine, vitamins, or other types of herbal products; (3) Manipulative and Body-Based Methods such as massage or physical therapies (e.g. heat and cold, or rehabilitation strategies); and (4) Mind-Body Medicine such as meditation, hypnosis, walking, or music therapy [31 (link)–38 (link)]. Exorcism in Islam (ruqya) was combined with Mind-Body Medicine, to mimic previous studies [33 (link), 39 (link), 40 (link)]. The last part of the questionnaire was designed to determine the types of herbal therapies that HD patients have used in self-therapy practices. HD patients were requested to provide the native name of the herb that they used as self-therapy. This study included all herbal remedies or other CAM which was used only for improving or curing health conditions during the dialysis care period as CAM.
Free full text: Click here
