Abstract
Background: Wet cupping is considered one of the most common traditional practices after spiritual healings and herbal medicine in Saudi Arabia. While there are many studies that have been previously conducted on the patterns and determinants of Complementary and alternative approaches as general, no enough data exists on the patterns and determinants of WCT among patients with pain in Saudi Arabia. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the patterns and determinants of wet cupping use for patients complaining of pain. Method: A retrospective records review study was conducted using medical records of patients who attended Hijama clinic in King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah city from January 2017 to December 2017. In total, 347 patients attended the clinic during the year 2017. Out of those patients, 231 were complaining of pain and were included in the study. The Chi-square test and Multivariate logistic regression were used to measure the association between the various socio - determinants and the wet cupping use. Results: The most common reason for attending Hijama clinic among patients complaining of pain during the year 2017 was the back pain (43.3%), followed by neck, shoulder and joint pain (34.6%), and headaches and migraine (22.1%). The using of other types of treatments in addition to WCT is 3.95 times more in patients with co-morbidly (P= <.001). Female is 2.35 times more likely than male to use WCT along with other treatments (P=0.034). The patients who are older than 55 years are 3.35 times more likely to use cupping with other treatments than younger patients (P=0.034). Conclusion: This present study found that the most common reason for using wet cupping among patients attended hijama clinic complaining of pain was musculoskeletal pain related conditions. Moreover, older female pain patients with chronic diseases tend to use wet cupping therapy alongside other treatments.