The purpose of the study is to investigate the prevalence of complementary and alternative medicine in patients undergoing hemodialysis as well as the contributing factors of such behaviors. To this end, a cross-sectional study was conducted in a medical center. A
total of 233 subjects undergoing hemodialysis were recruited in 2005 between June 15 and September 30 at a medical center in Taichung City, Taiwan. Demographic data, belief in Chinese and Western medicine as well as experience with using alternative medicine were acquired through structured questionnaires. Percentage and Chi-square tests were used for
data analysis. The results showed that 75.1% of patients undergoing hemodialysis used complementary and alternative medicine. Forty-seven percent patients took Chinese medicine and 42.9% patients used health food. Positive belief in Chinese and Western medicine was significantly related to the use of complementary and alternative medicine.Factors as gender, age, education level, marital status, time of hemodialysis were not statistically significant. The result suggests that health professionals should make more effort to understand the behavior of taking complementary medicine during the care of patients suffering from end stage renal disease.