Objective: This study looked at the relationship between beliefs in 'scientific medicine', personal health beliefs, attitudes to complementary medical practitioners and medical treatment preferences in two different groups: medical and non-medical (mainly social science) students. It extended the previous work of looking at patient groups.
Design: Once the psychometric properties of the four short questionnaires (53 items in all) were established as satisfactory in terms of their factor structure, the two groups were compared.
Results: By means of analysis of variance it was established that there were fewer differences between medical and non-medical students than might be expected by chance. A 'higher order' factor analysis revealed three clear factors underlying attitudes to complementary medicine: pro complementary medicine; pro orthodox medicine; and satisfaction with general practitioner. All the students appeared to have a sceptical but positive attitude to complementary medicine.