Complementary and alternative medicine use among adults in Enugu, Nigeria

BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Research Article

Ngozi P Ogbonnaya¹  Jane-lovena E Onyiapat¹  Ijeoma L Okoronkwo¹ 

[1] Department of Nursing Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, Nigeria;

关键词: National Health Insurance Scheme;    Conventional Medicine;    Local Government Area;    Black Stone;    Prayer Healing;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1472-6882-11-19

 received in 2010-09-17, accepted in 2011-03-04,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundAttention and interest in the use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) has been reawakened globally. Evidence from studies carried out in different parts of the world has established that CAM use is very common and varies among populations. This study investigated the use of CAM among adults in Enugu urban, irrespective of their health status. It provided information on the prevalence of CAM use, forms of CAM remedies used and reasons for utilizing themMethodsThe study areas were three local government areas in Enugu urban of Enugu State. Cross-sectional survey using questionnaires were administered to randomly selected households. All consenting participants were used for the studyResults732 participants (37.2% males and 62.8% females) were used for the study. Ages ranged from 18 - 65 years. 620 (84.7%) of the adult population have used CAM ranging from one single type to twenty different types while 112 (15.3%) have not used any form of CAM. The most commonly used CAM product was the biological products, followed by prayer/faith healing. Major reasons for using CAM include their natural state and also for health promotion and maintenance.ConclusionThere is need for adequate policy formulation and regulation to ensure safety and efficacy of CAM products. Measures to ensure rational use of CAM should be instituted.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Onyiapat et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.