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Herbal remedies and functional foods used by cancer patients attending specialty oncology clinics in Trinidad

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies, October 2016
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (82nd percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (87th percentile)

Mentioned by

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1 news outlet
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2 X users

Citations

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34 Dimensions

Readers on

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117 Mendeley
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Title
Herbal remedies and functional foods used by cancer patients attending specialty oncology clinics in Trinidad
Published in
BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies, October 2016
DOI 10.1186/s12906-016-1380-x
Pubmed ID
Authors

Yuri N. Clement, Varune Mahase, Annelise Jagroop, Kelly Kissoon, Aarti Maharaj, Prashant Mathura, Chrys Mc Quan, Divya Ramadhin, Cherrista Mohammed

Abstract

Cancer is a major disease worldwide, and many patients use complementary and alternative treatments. The purpose of this study was to identify the herbal remedies and functional foods used as complementary medicine by prostate, breast and colorectal cancer patients at speciality care facilities in Trinidad. We also sought to determine how patients rated the efficacy of these modalities compared with conventional treatment. A descriptive, cross-sectional survey was conducted using an interviewer-administered pilot-tested de novo questionnaire during the period June to August 2012 at two speciality treatment centres on the island. Data was analysed using χ(2) analyses. Among the 150 patients who reported use of herbal remedies/functional foods, soursop (Annona muricata L.) was the most popular; with 80.7 % using the leaves, bark, fruit and seeds on a regular basis. Other common herbal remedies/functional foods included wheatgrass (Triticum aestivum L.), saffron (Crocus sativus L.) and Aloe vera (L.) Burm. f. The most commonly used functional foods were beetroot (Beta vulgaris L.), carrots (Daucus carata L.) and papaya (Carica papaya L.) used by 43.3 % of patients; and these were mostly blended as a mixture. Herbal remedies and functional foods were used on a daily basis and patients believed that this modality was equally (32.0 %) or more efficacious (14.7 %) than conventional treatment. This survey identified the most common herbal remedies and functional foods used among prostate, breast and colorectal cancer patients in Trinidad. Although functional foods rarely pose a problem, herbs may interact with conventional chemotherapy and physicians need to inform patients regarding probable herb-drug interactions.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 2 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 117 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 1 <1%
Unknown 116 99%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 19 16%
Student > Bachelor 17 15%
Other 7 6%
Researcher 7 6%
Student > Doctoral Student 7 6%
Other 25 21%
Unknown 35 30%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 13 11%
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science 12 10%
Nursing and Health Professions 10 9%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 9 8%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 8 7%
Other 27 23%
Unknown 38 32%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 10. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 19 November 2023.
All research outputs
#3,309,549
of 24,837,507 outputs
Outputs from BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies
#615
of 3,890 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#54,312
of 323,110 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies
#9
of 74 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 24,837,507 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 86th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,890 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 9.3. This one has done well, scoring higher than 83% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 323,110 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 82% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 74 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 87% of its contemporaries.