| Title |
Complementary medicines in pregnancy: recommendations and information sources of healthcare professionals in Australia
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy, February 2018
|
| DOI | 10.1007/s11096-018-0608-x |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Christine E. Gilmartin, To-Hao Vo-Tran, Laura Leung |
| Abstract |
Background The use of oral complementary and alternative medicines, including herbal supplements, has been increasing in pregnant women worldwide despite limited safety data. The decision of healthcare professionals to recommend these products to pregnant patients is controversial and not well documented. Objective To explore the recommendations and information sources that healthcare professionals use to determine the safety of oral non-prescribed supplements during pregnancy. Setting An Australian metropolitan maternity hospital. Method An electronic survey was distributed to doctors, midwives, pharmacists, dietitians, lactation consultants and physiotherapists. Main outcome measure The nature of recommendations and information sources that healthcare professionals use to determine the safety of oral non-prescribed supplements during pregnancy. Results Responses were received from 54 healthcare professionals. Forty of 54 (74.1%) were concerned about the safety of their patients' supplements, while 35 of 54 (64.8%) felt that they had access to trustworthy safety information. Supplements most commonly recommended as safe to use were ginger (40.7%), probiotics (29.6%) and raspberry leaf (22.2%). Participants specifically requested further safety information for raspberry leaf, evening primrose oil, fish oil, probiotics, ginger, vitamin C, valerian, turmeric, blue cohosh and colloidal silver. Written resources most frequently consulted included MIMS®(61.1%) and 'Google Searches' (29.6%), and healthcare professionals most referred to were pharmacists (74.1%), doctors (22.2%), and naturopaths or herbalists (3.7%). Conclusion The recommendations of maternity heath care professionals and quality of information sources used varied. Further education and access to unbiased safety information is required to empower healthcare professionals to provide informed recommendations to pregnant patients. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profile of 1 X user who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Dominican Republic | 1 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 1 | 100% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 74 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Unknown | 74 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Master | 10 | 14% |
| Student > Bachelor | 9 | 12% |
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 8 | 11% |
| Other | 7 | 9% |
| Researcher | 5 | 7% |
| Other | 8 | 11% |
| Unknown | 27 | 36% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Nursing and Health Professions | 19 | 26% |
| Medicine and Dentistry | 9 | 12% |
| Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science | 6 | 8% |
| Social Sciences | 4 | 5% |
| Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 2 | 3% |
| Other | 4 | 5% |
| Unknown | 30 | 41% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 2. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 24 June 2018.
All research outputs
#14,378,457
of 23,026,672 outputs
Outputs from International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
#727
of 1,103 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#187,863
of 330,332 outputs
Outputs of similar age from International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
#15
of 24 outputs
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