Knowledge and opinions about apitherapy among the term 1 and term 6 medical students

Abstract

Apitherapy is the use of honey bee products for health and it has been used for similar purposes for a very long time by the public. These products have examples of healing affecting whole body systems. The approach and education of apitherapy in medical schools are inadequate. In this study, the level of knowledge and opinions about apitherapy were investigated in junior and senior students at the medical faculty. A questionnaire about the knowledge and opinions on apitherapy was applied to the students who were determined by randomization in term 1 (n = 100) and 6 (n = 100). Gender distribution within and between terms was almost equal. Apitherapy was the second most commonly known method of complementary medicine in term 1 (55%) and the sixth in term 6 (49%). Honey was the most commonly experienced product in both terms, (1: 69% and 6: 64%) and term 1 students tried all products more often except for propolis. The vast majority of students in both terms did not know the action mechanisms of bee pollen, propolis and bee poison. This study demonstrated that knowledge and experience of apitherapy among the future’s doctors were limited. Placing apitherapy in the curriculum and increasing the number of apitherapist teaching members will increase their tendency to use apitherapy.

Keywords:

• apitherapy
• medical students
• honey
• bee venom
• propolis
• royal jelly

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.