The Prevalence and Predictors of Herbal Medicine Use in Surgical Patients, 2001
Investigators: Prasad S. Adusumilli, Leah Ben-Porat, Meriner Pereira, Daniel Roesler, & I. Michael Leitman

Despite the rapid rise in herbal medicine consumption, explicitly eliciting and documenting herbal medicine usage among surgical patients is poor. The purpose of this study was to assess the herbal medicine usage in surgical patients and the willingness of patients to reveal their herbal medicine usage to the surgical care staff. The Prevalence and Predictors of Herbal Medicine Use in Surgical Patients, 2001 was conducted at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York during a 10-week period. All eligible patients presenting for elective surgery were approached and asked to participate in the study by completing a self-administered questionnaire inquiring into the self-health perceptions, herbal medicine use, and communication of such usage to surgical health-care staff. 2,186 of all eligible patients completed the questionnaire, yielding a response rate of 65%. The data set contains 59 variables collected from the 2,186 respondents.