Teaching integrative and complementary medicine in health undergraduate courses: systematic review

Background: Health undergraduate courses have their curricula focused on conventional medicine. Integrative and Complementary Practice also known as Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) have been included in this worldwide scenario motivated by the growing need for new care possibilities that value Traditional Medicines and the individual-centered view. This work aims to analyze published evidence about CAM in health teaching around the world. Methods: This is a systematic review about the teaching of CAM on fifteen different undergraduate health courses, published between 2010 and 2020, in Portuguese and English, indexed in the Pubmed and VHL databases. The descriptors were “complementary and alternative medicine teaching” or its variations and the name of fifteen undergraduate health courses. The methodological quality was assessed using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) recommendations and Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) criteria. Results: The initial search identified 351 articles. After exclusion criteria, 22 articles were read to identify the courses that offers CAM, the modalities and the effects of including CAM in health courses. Different modalities were found and varies according to the country and health course, as well as they are offered as elective format. The contact with integrative medicine at undergraduate increases the interest, confidence and level of knowledge. In students’ opinions, the professional who adds CAM in their training tends to take full care of patients. Conclusions: There is a clear need to include integrative medicine in all undergraduate health courses curriculum to provide safe and complete information about integrative medicine.