ADULTS EXPERIENCE WITH (NON-)CONVENTIONAL HEALTH (SELF-)CARE PRACTICES IN PANDEMIC PORTUGAL

Introduction: Before the COVID-19 pandemic, research had shown high (and variable) prevalences of the use of Complementary and/or Alternative Medicine (CAM; eg., 70%), in adults and children, dependent, neverthless, on the type of practice. Objective: To characterize adults’ experience with conventional and non-conventional health (self-)care practices during the COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal. Method: After obtaining the necessary authorizations, between 1/10-27/11/2021, a total of 104 adults living in Portugal answered to a Google Forms questionnaire on health (self-)care practices. Results: As for the last time the participants performed any health (self-)care practice: - 47,6% evaluated the results they obtained as good and 14.3% as very good; - 59.5% were satisfied with that practice; - 27.1% considered it a non-conventional practice and 20% were not sure. In terms of health (self-)care practices: 65.2% reported using conventional and non-conventional practices. Among those who have ever used any non-conventional practice: - 50% did it using a professional and 33.9% by themselves and using a professional; - 48.4% use it rarely; - 17.9% started using it more frequently since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic; - 93.8% had never done it against the recommendation of a (conventional) health professional. Since the beginning of the pandemic: 11.2% had at least one appointment with a non-conventional health professional; and 4.1% had more appointments with non-conventional health professionals than with conventional health professionals. Regarding negative experiences with non-conventional practices, 89.7% never had any. Conclusions: Since: (a) participants were mostly satisfied with their last health (self-)care practice/its results, predominantly a conventional practice, even though the majority use both types of practices; (b) when using non-conventional practices, only a minority use it by themselves and the majority with some frequency; (c) its (generally rational) use did not increase considerably with the pandemic; and (d) few negative experiences were reported, these preliminary results are not alarming. Nevertheless, they do suggest a need to increase health care professionals’, non-conventional users’ and non-users’ knowledge about these practices to ensure patients’ safety.