LSE Health, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London, WC2A 2AE, UK.
Health Policy Plan. 2012 Dec;27(8):625-37. doi: 10.1093/heapol/czs010. Epub 2012 Feb 17.
Traditional medicine is known to be popular in sub-Saharan Africa, where over 80% have reported its utilization. It is claimed to be easily accessible, affordable, available and acceptable, but little is known about at which stage of treatment-seeking individuals turn to traditional medicines and the resulting satisfaction once used. This is due to a paucity of quantitative demand data on how many recourses of care people take for one episode of illness, whether individuals use traditional medicines as a secondary option to orthodox medicines, and if used, how satisfied they are with results. This study presents descriptive data from fieldwork carried out on 772 households in two regions of Ghana to ascertain actions taken for self-reported episodes of acute and previously diagnosed chronic diseases. Quantitative results that show by looking merely at first recourse, use of traditional medicines is fairly low, but once second recourses are accounted for there is a doubling and tripling of incidence of traditional medicine use for acute and chronic diseases, respectively. A commonly used patient-reported outcome measurement, the EuroQol 5 Dimension (EQ5D), is used to measure satisfaction before and after traditional medicine use, to reveal significantly positive changes. The study shows that whilst individuals are highly satisfied with traditional medicine, it is more often the second recourse of treatment with a revealed preference for orthodox medicines as a first recourse. This suggests that research is needed to investigate why individuals turn to traditional medicine only as a second recourse and to clarify the insufficiencies of orthodox treatment. Policies which guide individuals to take the most efficient recourses for given symptoms, and further exploration of key reasons behind high levels of satisfaction following utilization, are encouraged.
传统医学在撒哈拉以南非洲很受欢迎，超过 80%的人报告说他们在使用传统医学。传统医学被认为是容易获得、负担得起、可及和可接受的，但对于寻求治疗的人在哪个阶段转向传统医学，以及使用后满意度如何，人们知之甚少。这是因为缺乏关于人们在一次疾病发作中会寻求多少种治疗方法的定量需求数据，也不知道个人是否将传统医学作为对正统医学的二级选择，如果使用，他们对结果的满意度如何。本研究提供了在加纳两个地区对 772 户家庭进行实地调查的描述性数据，以确定为自我报告的急性和先前诊断的慢性疾病发作采取的行动。定量结果表明，仅从第一选择来看，传统医学的使用率相当低，但一旦考虑到第二选择，急性和慢性疾病使用传统医学的发生率就会分别增加一倍和三倍。一种常用的患者报告结局测量工具，即欧洲五维健康量表（EQ5D），用于测量传统医学使用前后的满意度，结果显示满意度显著提高。研究表明，尽管个人对传统医学非常满意，但更多的是将其作为治疗的第二选择，而对正统医学作为第一选择的偏好则有所增加。这表明需要研究为什么个人仅将传统医学作为第二选择，以及澄清正统治疗的不足。鼓励制定指导个人针对特定症状选择最有效的治疗方法的政策，并进一步探索使用后满意度高的关键原因。
