Complementary and alternative medicine use in children with asthma

Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) is increasingly used in the treatment of asthma in children. In the studies conducted, it was stated that there was a standardization problem in CAM methods. Moreover, this situation raises the question of "Which is the most widely used CAM method?" in asthma treatment. This study aimed to determine the use of CAM methods in children who are followed up with the diagnosis of asthma.

The patients aged 4-10 years who were diagnosed with asthma by a physician in the past and who admitted to the Child Health and Diseases Polyclinic of a hospital issuing tertiary health service in Turkey were included in the study. The demographic data of patients and CAM methods used were examined.

The median age of a total of 164 asthmatic children included in the study was 6.3 (4-10) years, and 58.3% of them were observed to be male. The median time to diagnosis of the patients was 2.0 (1; 105) months, mostly having multiple cough attacks per day (33.1%), and the rate of children with cough attacks at least once a month to awaken from sleep at night was 47.6%. Honey (36.6%) was found to be one of the most preferred biological-based therapies for families and was followed by molasses (16.9%), which were derived from herbal and natural products.

There are varying rates of CAM use in asthmatic children all over the world, and it was found that honey was used the most in our study. Atopy can be found in the etiology of asthmatic patients. Therefore, it should not be forgotten that using different CAM methods at the same time may pose a risk.