Objective: Gender differences in attitudes toward and knowledge of CAM among health care profession students have not been evaluated in Japan. We examined gender differences in opinions, attitudes and knowledge regarding CAM among Japanese health care profession students. Methods: The subjects of this study were 1465 health care profession students. We used a questionnaire to obtain information on knowledge, sources of information, personal use, interest, willingness to take lectures, opinions regarding effectiveness and willingness to recommend for 17 different CAM modalities. Results: The proportions of female students with sufficient knowledge or a little knowledge of massage, chiropractic, Japanese herbal medicine, aromatherapy, diet, dietary supplements, psychotherapy, yoga and music therapy were significantly higher than the proportions of male students (p < 0.05). The frequencies of personal use of aromatherapy and yoga by female students were significantly higher than those by male students (p < 0.05). Female students had high levels of interest in aromatherapy, massage, yoga and chiropractic, while male students had high levels of interest in Japanese herbal medicine, massage and psychotherapy. Both female and male students had positive opinions regarding clinical usefulness and recommendation for massage, Japanese herbal medicine and psychotherapy (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Female students are more likely to have positive and favorable attitudes toward CAM than are male students in Japan. CAM modalities that female students had an interest in and used were different from CAM modalities for which they had positive opinions regarding clinical usefulness and recommendation to patients.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare levels of knowledge of and attitudes toward complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in different groups of health care profession students.
Methods: The subjects of this study were 1465 students of nursing, medicine, radiologic science, laboratory science, nutrition, dentistry, oral health and welfare, and pharmaceutical science. We used a questionnaire to obtain information on knowledge, sources of information, interest, personal use, willingness to take lectures, opinions regarding effectiveness and willingness to recommend for 17 different CAM modalities.
Results: Knowledge of CAM differed depending on the CAM therapy in all students. Nursing students had high levels of interest in massage, aromatherapy, yoga and chiropractic. The proportions of nursing students with high levels of interest in these CAM therapies were significantly higher than the proportions in other groups of health profession students (p < 0.05). In addition, proportions of nursing students who had positive opinions regarding the usefulness of massage, chiropractic, psychotherapy, yoga and aromatherapy were significantly higher than the proportions in other groups of heath care profession students (p < 0.05).
Conclusions: Nursing students tend to have positive and favorable attitudes toward CAM compared to other groups of health care profession students. If nursing students receive lectures on CAM in their curriculum, they may use CAM in clinical care and thereby contribute to an accumulation of evidence on the benefits of CAM as well as to improvement in the quality of medical service.

The purpose of this study was to verify the concept of Kampo medicine epidemiologically and demonstrate the objective bases of the Kampo treatment. For this purpose, a population based survey of subjective symptoms based on Kampo medicine was conducted among 1,486 residents of Hase village, Nagano prefecture, ages 20 and older. The completion rate was 80.7% and 1,199 residents provided favorable responses. An investigation of gender differences showed a higher rate of blood deficiency among female residents, while spleen and qi deficiency were more common in males. Considering age differences, symptoms related to blood deficiency and water-dampness affected younger females, symptoms related to qi deficiency primarily affected younger males, and symptoms of liver afflictions were common in younger both genders. Among the elderly residents, symptoms of kidney deficiency were overwhelmingly predominant in both genders. Though younger people with subjective sense of health had few diseases in western medicine, most of the elderly with perceived health actually had some kind of diseases for medical treatment. Physical symptoms in the chest area such as shortness of breath correlated positively with the perception not to be healthy, and these may be regarded as both the manifestation and factors contributing to ill health. Approximately 1 out of 12 residents reported currently receiving the treatment of oriental medicine or demonstrated the potential to benefit from such intervention. These results may clinically be useful as the objective bases to perform the Kampo treatment.