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PREVALENCE AND SATISFACTION LEVELS OF COMPLEMENTARY ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE USE FOR THE HEADACHES – A CROSSSECTIONAL STUDY

WAJID SYED 1*, MOHAMMED M ALBALAWI 2 , OSAMA A SAMARKANDI 3 , SHOGAIR MSHAL ALMUTAIRI 2 , ABDULLAH M. ALOBAID 4 , MAHMOOD BASIL A. AL-RAWI 5 , SANA SAMREEN 6 , AYESHA IQBAL 7,8

1Department of Clinical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
2Prince Sultan College for Emergency Medical Services, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
3Basic Sciences Department, Prince Sultan College for Emergency Medical Services, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
4Department of Accident and Trauma, Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz College for Emergency Medical Services, King Saud
University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
5Department of optometry, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
6Aurobindo College of Pharmacy, Warangal, Telangana, India
7Division of Pharmacy Practice and Policy, School of Pharmacy, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom
8Office of Lifelong Learning and the Physician Learning Program, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta,
AB T6G1C9 Edmonton, Canada

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This study aimed to assess the prevalence and satisfaction levels of Complementary Alternative Medicine (CAM) use for the treatment of headaches among adults living in the Riyadh region in Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional study was conducted over four months from March to June 2022 using an online questionnaire to assess the prevalence of CAM use among the public for the treatment of headaches in Saudi Arabia with a total of 16 items which assessed the participant's history of use of CAM and satisfaction. The prevalence of headaches in this study was 81.8 % (n = 370). In terms of pain severity, 6.9% (n = 31) of headache sufferers claimed the worst possible pain, while 45.3% (n = 206) reported severe pain. In this study 151 (44%) participants were highly satisfied with the use of CAM for headaches. The severity of headaches is significantly high among women (n = 106) compared to men (n = 83) (p = 0.029). The satisfaction level of CAM, use is not significantly associated with gender (p = 0.966), age group (p = 0.549) and pain rating (p = 0.095). The current findings reported a relatively high prevalence of headaches among Saudi adults, furthermore, most of the participants used CAM for headaches while slightly less than half of them were satisfied with the CAM. To achieve trustworthy health outcomes, it is advised to use CAM under the supervision of trained healthcare experts like doctors, nurses, or pharmacists.