Patient’s Decision to Disclose the Use of Traditional and Complementary Medicine to Medical Doctor: A Descriptive Phenomenology Study

Table 1

Sociodemographic and economic characteristic, health profile, and type of traditional and complementary medicine use of the participants ().

Characteristics	Frequency	Percentage
Sociodemographic and economic characteristics
Age in years
≤20	1	10.0
21–30	3	30.0
31–40	6	60.0
41–50	0	0.0
51–60	0	0.0
>60	0	0.0
Mean (SD) years	31.6 (6.6)
Min–Max in years	20–40
Mode in years	25
Gender
Female	7	70.0
Male	3	30.0
Ethnicity
Malay	4	40.0
Chinese	1	10.0
Bidayuh	5	50.0
Religions
Muslim	4	40.0
Christian	5	50.0
Buddhist	1	10.0
Education
No formal education	0	0.0
Primary	1	10.0
Secondary	4	40.0
Tertiary	5	50.0
Marital status
Married	8	80.0
Single	2	20.0
Occupation
Unemployed	4	40.0
Private employee	3	30.0
Government employee	3	30.0
Household income per month
≤MYR1000	5	50.0
MYR1001–2000	4	40.0
MYR2001–3000	1	10.0
MYR3001–4000	0	0.0
MYR4001–5000	0	0.0
>MYR5000	0	0.0
Mean (SD) MYR	1250.00 (754.62)
Min–Max in MYR	500–2500
Mode in MYR	500
HEALTH PROFILE
Type of chronic diseases
Diabetes mellitus	5	50.0
Hypercholesterolemia	5	50.0
Hypertension	4	40.0
Asthma	3	30.0
Type of T&CM use
Supplement	10	100.0
Body massage	2	20.0
Malay herbs	1	10.0
Acupuncture	1	10.0

T&CM: traditional and complementary medicine; multiple response.