A Study of the Status of Prescribing Herbal Medicines by Physicians Among the Elderly in Tehran

Objectives: Herbal medicine is one of the most widely used methods of complementary medicine around the world and studies have shown that the elderly use a variety of natural and herbal products and believe that these products are harmless due to their natural nature. Therefore, due to the desire of the elderly to use herbal medicines, our aim of this study was to evaluate the amount of herbal medicines prescribed by physicians. Materials and Methods: The present study was performed as a secondary analysis of the information of a cross-sectional study. The statistical population was the elderly in Tehran. Data were collected and analyzed in 2020 from the prescriptions of the elderly over 60 years old who referred to pharmacies in Tehran by cluster random sampling from Tehran. The sample size was 1591 copies. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics including mean and dispersion indices and inferential statistics and using chi-square tests, independent t-test and 24SPSS statistical software. Results: Out of 1591 reviews, 79 (5%) contained herbal medicine. Laxatives, ginkgo and ginseng had the most prescriptions, respectively. Chi-square test showed that there is a statistically significant relationship between the education of the elderly (p = 0.018), insurance (p = 0.004) and polypharmacy (p = 0.000) with the administration of herbal medicines. But there is no significant relationship between gender and marital status of the elderly, gender, age and work experience of physicians with prescribing herbal medicines. The rate of prescribing herbal medicines in general practitioners is 5.7% and in specialized physicians is 4.7%, but no significant relationship was found between general practitioners and specialists in prescribing herbal medicines. Also, the study of prescriptions showed that among specialized physicians, infectious disease specialists with 14%, physical medicine with 12%, orthopedics with 9.2%, respectively, had the most prescriptions of herbal medicines. Showed herbal medicine (P = 0.042). Conclusion: According to the results of this study, the rate of prescribing herbal medicines is low among physicians. Help increase the prescription of herbal medicines.