THE UTILIZATION OF COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE AMONG HEALTH WORKERS IN NIGER DELTA UNIVERSITY TEACHING HOSPITAL, OKOLOBIRI

INTRODUCTION Over the years, complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has been a growing and emerging issue of concern and importance in healthcare. It is an aspect which incorporates plants, animals and/or mineral based medicines, spiritual therapies exercises, manual techniques either applied individually or in combination to maintain wellbeing and health by treating, diagnosing and preventing illnesses. Several studies have shown that global prevalence of use of CAM is up to 80% and proportion varies among countries due to their different socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. In Africa especially Nigeria there is suspected high prevalence of CAM use. Across the nation however there has not been any proper research documentation on CAM use and its clinical implication of such services by health personnel especially within the south- south geopolitical zone. Hence the basis of this research using Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital (NDUTH) Okolobiri as the case study. OBJECTIVES The study assessed the utilization of CAM among health workers in NDUTH Okolobiri. METHODS A multistage sampling technique was employed for this study categorizing the health workers into clinical and non-clinical staffs and subsequently both groups were stratified further. A total of 28 data was collected from both groups through semi structured questionnaire and data collected was analysed using statistical packaged for social science (SPSS) version 29.0 which involves both descriptive and inferential statistics.RESULTS The study surveyed a total of 289 health workers of NDUTH Okolobiri, out of the 289 respondents majority were Izons making up 86.5% of respondents, 96.5% were Christians. Furthermore, most respondents picked exercise therapy as the most used form of complementary services having a 100%, with polarity therapy been the least use with 2.1%. In addition result also showed that about 45.3% had a good knowledge about CAM services while 14.2% had poor knowledge. As regards the use of CAM about 52.6% of respondents indicated occasional use, while 19.7% do not use CAM services at all. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS In the light of the above, we recommend to the relevant authorities; training initiatives should be implemented for health workers at NDUTH to enhance their understanding and awareness of diverse CAM services. In addition, the NDUTH should also establish a research platform to conduct additional studies on this topic with a focus on gathering scientific evidence to support the effectiveness of specific CAM practices.