Knowledge of traditional herbalists on diabetes mellitus and the effect of herbal medicine on Glycaemic control
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Date
2015-07-02
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Abstract
Response to the high epidemic of diabetes mellitus on the African continent is
bedeviled by challenges including lack of access to accurate information on the
disease. Many diabetics therefore turn to traditional herbalists who promise cure
for diabetes mellitus using herbal medicine. Traditional herbalists are therefore a
significant source of management and information on diabetes mellitus, yet there
is little published information about knowledge of traditional herbalists on
diabetes mellitus and the effect of herbal medicine on glycaemic control. A
descriptive study employing interviews was conducted with 55 traditional
herbalists and 235 diabetics in the Techiman Municipality of Ghana. The
objectives were to assess traditional herbalists’ knowledge on diabetes mellitus
and its management, and to determine the effect of herbal medicine use for
diabetes mellitus management on glycaemic control of diabetics who use herbal
medicine and are attending the diabetic out-patient clinic of Holy Family Hospital
in Techiman. Traditional herbalists’ overall knowledge scores on diabetes
mellitus were classified as; good (if ≥ 70%), satisfactory (if 50-60%) or poor (if <
50%) based on classification used in a similar study. The results showed that the
traditional herbalists’ overall knowledge on diabetes mellitus is poor (average
percentage score of 15.6 ± 9.4). Only 38.2% of the traditional herbalists correctly
identified diabetes mellitus as too much “sugar” in the blood. A few (7.3%) said
diabetes mellitus is caused by a malfunctioning organ that helps body cells utilise
sugar. There was no complete distinct understanding between the causes and risk
factors of diabetes mellitus among the studied traditional herbalists because 44%
mentioned some established risk factors as causes of diabetes mellitus. Few
(25.5%) agreed that there are various types of diabetes mellitus but could not
mention the specific types and 33% said they had no idea about the risk factors of
diabetes mellitus. None of the traditional herbalists mentioned overweight/obesity
and advancing age as risk factors of diabetes mellitus. Only 7.3% of the
traditional herbalists mentioned polyphagia or polydipsia as signs/symptoms of
diabetes mellitus. Important complications of diabetes mellitus such as kidney
disease and heart disease were not mentioned by any of the traditional herbalists.
Almost all the traditional herbalists (92.7%) considered dietary modification by
consuming high servings of vegetables while reducing the intake of starches and
sugar as an essential part in the management of diabetes mellitus. The prevalence
of herbal medicine use for diabetes mellitus among diabetics attending the
diabetic out-patient clinic of Holy Family Hospital, Techiman was 8.9% and this
did not significantly affect their glycaemic control. The findings imply that people
who consult traditional herbalists for diabetes mellitus management are more
likely to receive inaccurate information and not more effective herbal medicines
compared to orthodox management which can negatively affect diabetes mellitus
self-management practices. Based on the results of this study, it is recommended
that capacity building programmes to help improve upon traditional herbalists’
knowledge on diabetes mellitus be encouraged and further studies should be
conducted on the effect of only herbal medicine use on glycaemic control.
Key words: Knowledge, Traditional herbalists, Herbal medicine,Diabetes
mellitus.
Description
A thesis submitted to the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology,
College of Science
in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
MASTER OF PHILOSOPHY IN
HUMAN NUTRITION AND DIETETICS. 2015