Introduction: Complementary alternative medicine (CAM) is increasingly used throughout the world, especially among individuals with chronic illnesses such as Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM). This study was done with an objective to findthe prevalence, types, and reasons for CAM use among patients with diabetes in northern India. Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted over a period of six months (September 2016 to February 2017) among patients with diabetes coming to the geriatric clinic at a tertiary care hospital in Chandigarh, India. Data was collected from 444 participants on structured pre-tested questionnaire using interview technique. Data wasentered into SPSS version 20 and analysed.Chi-square test was used as a test of significance, considering the level of significance at p<0.05. Results: Mean age of the participants was 67.5 ± 5.7 years. More than half (60.4%) of participants were aware of CAM although 42.3% of participants were taking CAM. Biological type was most commonly used CAM (63.8%). All CAM users were found to be satisfied. Significant results were found according to education (p=0.03), type of family (p=0.00), status of diabetes (p=0.02) and attitude towards CAM (p=0.00) between CAM users and non- users. Conclusion: The prevalence of CAM use was found to be high (42.3%) among T2DM patients. CAM users had a positive attitude towards CAM in diabetes management.
