Urban-Rural Disparities in Traditional Health Service Use in Indonesia: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

The government encourages increasing traditional health service use in Indonesia. Meanwhile, urbanrural disparities still exist in modern health services in Indonesia. This study analyzes the urban-rural differences in traditional health service use in Indonesia. The study employed the 2018 Indonesian Basic Health Survey data. We examined 629,370 respondents for this cross-sectional study. The study examined age, gender, marital status, education, occupation, and wealth as control factors in addition to residence type and traditional health service use. The study used binary logistic regression to evaluate the data. The result shows that those who live in urban areas can be 1.051 higher than those in rural areas to use traditional health services (95% CI 1.039-1.063). All age groups are more likely to use traditional health services than the ≤ 25. Females are 1.064 more likely to use conventional health services (95% CI 1.051-1.076). All marital statuses are more likely than "never in union" to use traditional health services. The higher the education level, the higher the use of traditional health services. All categories are more likely than no work to use traditional health services. The better the wealth status, the higher the possibility of using conventional health services. The study concluded that urban-rural disparities existed in traditional health service use in Indonesia. The novelty and scientific contribution of the study was the urban-rural differences in traditional health service use. Previous studies rarely disclose information about it.

Traditional Health Services Utilization in Disadvantage Areas in Indonesia

“…Some chronic diseases often treated with traditional medicine include diabetes, hypertension, chronic respiratory disease, cancer, and other diseases such as joint pain, back pain, inflammation, and digestive disorders [18]- [20]. The more illnesses people have, the more likely they are to use traditional medical services [2], [19]. Thus, it is unsurprising that the search for conventional medicine services in the older age group is also more significant than in the younger age group.…”

“…The Indonesian Basic Health Survey report shows that public interest in using THS tends to increase in 2018 (31.4%) compared to 2013 (30.1%). Moreover, the utilization of THS types in the household for primarily manual skills was 65.3%, prepared ingredients 48%, and homemade ingredients 31.8% [1], [2]. Previous findings show that the elderly population uses THS in Indonesia at 37.0% and their efforts with traditional medicine (17.3%).…”

“…By incorporating traditional and conventional services-complementary medicine into maternal and personal health care-the process seeks to increase knowledge, reinforce quality assurance, safety, and appropriate use, and advance universal health coverage [1]. The development trend of countries that have national complementary Medicine policies continues to increase by 25 countries (1999), 45 countries (2005), 79 countries (2012), and in 2018, a total of 98 countries [1], [2].…”