Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Community on Traditional Medicine in Jara Town, Bale Zone South East Ethiopia

Abstract

Traditional medicine is an ancient medical practice that is still widely used in prevention and treatment of various health problems for majority of global population particularly in rural developing countries like Ethiopia. The aim of this study is to assess knowledge, attitude and practice of the community on tradition medicine in Jara town. A community based cross sectional study was carried out in the community of Jara town from April 5 to April 10/2013. Face to face interview was carried out using structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20. Frequency and percentages were calculated. The study involved 271 participants recruited by systematic random sampling technique. Participants of the study were interviewed with a structured open and close ended questionnaire. From the total of 271 participants who were identified for the study all of them participated in the study. Two hundred sixty one (96.3%) of the respondents answered that they have heard about traditional medicine. One hundred forty eight (54.61%) of the respondents think that there are diseases that are not cured by modern medicine while 123(45.38%) believe that there are no diseases that cannot be cured by modern medicine. One hundred nineteen (43.91%) of our respondents have planned to use traditional medicine in the future. Two hundred (73.8%) of the respondents have used traditional medicine at least once in their life time. The study concludes that many of the respondents found herbal medicine to be safe, effective and beneficial. Despite many of the respondents believe that herbal medicine rarely produce adverse effect, a few experienced them mildly and moderately.