Traditional Medicine Followed at the Heart Institute of Abidjan

Abstract

Objective: To determine the prevalence of the use of traditional medicine in hypertensive patients and to identify the socio-demographic characteristics of these patients. Materials and Methods: This is a single cross-sectional study with descriptive purpose that was carried out over a 4 month-period, from 1 January 2017 to 30 April 2017, in the outpatient department of the Heart Institute of Abidjan. It involved patients who consulted during this period for high blood pressure. An informed questionnaire was submitted to patients. A pre-test was performed on 20 patients prior to the start of the survey. Results: The prevalence was 34%, with a slight male predominance (52.4%). The average age of our patients was 51.7 years ± 20 years. Males (52.4%) and females (47.6%) were roughly in the same proportions in our study with a slight male predominance. Patients with a higher level of education used traditional medicine in 30.6% that is about one third of the cases. Nearly one third of the patients had a monthly income above 300,000 FCFA (28.5%). Almost half of the patients (45%) had social insurance coverage. Conclusion: The use of traditional medicine by hypertensive patients is a practice that exists and is growing rapidly. The profile of hypertensive patients using traditional medicine can be summarized as a young subject, a male with a higher education level, a high monthly income and social coverage. It is the place to insist on the therapeutic education of our hypertensive patients' only way for a good control of the blood pressure figures.

Untitled

“…This act will just boost the activities of traditional healers by making them step up health care to populations. [47][48][49][50][51][52]…”