Complementary and alternative medicines use during pregnancy: a systematic review of pregnant women and healthcare professional views and experiences.

Pallivalappila, Abdul Rouf; Stewart, Derek; Shetty, Ashalatha; Pande, Binita; McLay, James S.

Abstract

Aims. To undertake a systematic review of the recent (2008-2013) primary literature, describing views and experiences of CAM use during pregnancy by women and healthcare professionals. Method. Medline, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Cochrane Database of Systematic Review Library and Allied, and Complementary Medicine Database were searched. Studies reporting systemic CAM products (homeopathic preparations, herbal medicines, Vitamins and minerals, homeopathy, and special diets) alone or in combination with other nonsystemic CAM modalities (e.g., acupuncture) were included. Results. Database searches retrieved 2,549 citations. Removal of duplicates followed by review of titles and abstracts yielded 32 relevant studies. Twenty-two reported the perspectives of women and their CAM use during pregnancy, while 10 focused on healthcare professionals. The majority of studies had significant flaws in study design and reporting, including a lack of appropriate definitions of CAM and associated modalities, absence of detailed checklists provided to participants, the use of convenience sampling, and a general lack of scientific robustness in terms of data validity and reliability. Conclusion. To permit generalisability of study findings, there is an urgent need to expand the evidence base assessing CAMs use during pregnancy using appropriately designed studies.

Citation

PALLIVALAPILA, A.R., STEWART, D., SHETTY, A., PANDE, B. and MCLAY, J. S. 2013. Complementary and alternative medicines use during pregnancy: a systematic review of pregnant women and healthcare professional views and experiences. Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine [online], 2013, Article ID 205639. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/205639

• Journal Article Type: Review
• Acceptance Date: Aug 21, 2013
• Online Publication Date: Sep 30, 2013
• Publication Date: Dec 31, 2013
• Deposit Date: Mar 11, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 11, 2015
• Journal: Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine
• Print ISSN: 1741-427X
• Electronic ISSN: 1741-4288
• Publisher: Hindawi
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 2013
• Article Number: 205639
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/205639
• Public URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10059/1161
• Contract Date: Mar 11, 2015