A descriptive survey study in endocrinology clinic: evaluation of the use of natural products

The use of herbal products/dietary supplements (HP/DS) in endocrinal chronic diseases is growing. However, no studies have evaluated their use in patients who present to endocrinology and metabolic diseases clinics. This descriptive study aims to investigate the rate of HP/DS use and the factors affecting this in patients who presented to Karadeniz Technical University (KTU) Farabi Hospital Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases Clinic, Türkiye between 01.11.2021 and 01.05.2022.

Five hundred six questionnaires with acceptable data quality were included this investigation. The data were analyzed on SPSS version 23.0 software. The factors with the greatest effect on the use of HP/DS were determined using binary logistic regression analysis.

Analysis showed that 49.4% of the participants used HP/DS. The main factors affecting the use of herbal products were age, diagnosis of the disease, and treatment compliance problems. The most frequently used products were lemon, cinnamon, black cumin, ginger, turmeric, and dill. The participants main sources of information about HP/DS were friends/relatives, the internet/social media, and television, respectively. 74.8% of the participants using HP/DS did not inform their physcisian/pharmacist about such use, although 81.8% of these nevertheless wished to receive information from these occupational groups.

Herbal product monitoring in patients should be performed in collaboration with pharmacists, herbal product use should be investigated, and counseling services should be made available in order to maintain and promote public health.