<b>Survey of Kampo Medicine Awareness in First- and Second-year Resident Physicians at Three General Hospitals in </b><b>Hiroshima</b> / 日本東洋医学雑誌

ABSTRACT

<p>We conducted a survey of Kampo medicine prescribing rates, and Kampo medicine awareness in first- and second-year resident physicians at three general hospitals in Hiroshima, Japan, to inform future Kampo medicine education strategies.<br>Overall, 85.7% of the resident physicians were interested in Kampo medicine, and 70.8% wanted to practice it. Furthermore, 57.8% of the resident physicians had prescribed Kampo medicine, and of these, about 30% were prescribing it a few times per month, with both the percentage of prescribing physicians and the frequency of prescription being higher than expected. In total, 90.8% of the resident physicians wanted to observe outpatient Kampo medicine clinics and learn about Kampo medicine in their postgraduate clinical training.<br>Overall, 97.4% of the resident physicians thought that seminars and lectures on Kampo medicine are needed, choosing responses that Western medicine is insufficient in some cases (27.0%) and that Kampo medicine is better than Western medicine in some cases (26.4%) among the choices for answers to the need for seminars and lectures. Meanwhile, the reasons for not having an interest in Kampo medicine were having fewer opportunities to study it ; and feeling that it has a negative image (seeing it as outdated and unscientific). We think that appropriate Kampo medicine education for these physicians would reduce its negative image. The results of this survey suggest that resident physicians need a substantial education in Kampo medicine.</p>