Introduction:

Homeopathy is a widely used therapy in different parts of the world. However, its effectiveness has not been scientifically proven.

Objective:

To assess the factors associated with the perception of homeopathy scientific validity in Peruvian general practice (GP) physicians.

Materials and methods:

Cross-sectional analytical study. A group of GP physicians who attended training and career guidance courses on medical specialties and residencies offered by Colegio Médico del Perú (Medical Association of Peru) in 2017 were asked to complete a self-administered survey. The main study variable was evaluated using the following question: Do you consider that homeopathy effectiveness has been scientifically proven? Prevalence ratios (PR) and adjusted prevalence ratios (aPR), as well as their 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) were calculated to assess the factors associated with considering homeopathy effectiveness as scientifically proven.

Results:

285 GP physicians completed the survey (55.1% were women; median age: 28 years); 67.4% reported having heard about homeopathy, and out of these, 22.5% considered that homeopathy effectiveness was scientifically proven. Perceiving this type of therapy as scientifically valid was more frequent in women (aPR:1.80, 95%CI:1.03-3.16) and less frequent in those who had published at least one scientific paper (aPR:0.23, 95%CI:0.06-0.88).

Conclusions:

Almost a quarter of the physicians who had heard about homeopathy considered that this therapy had been scientifically proven. This might be caused by gaps in their medical training regarding alternative and complementary medicine therapies, and the influence that non-formal education has on decision-making.

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