Department of Nursing, College of Health Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.
Nursing and Midwifery Training College, P. O. Box F1, Fomena Adansi, Ashanti Region, Ghana.
BMC Complement Med Ther. 2024 Jan 23;24(1):50. doi: 10.1186/s12906-024-04364-x.
Women living with breast cancer (BC) rely on traditional medicine (TM) in addition to orthodox medicine. There is a need to understand how and why women diagnosed with BC utilise TM. This study explored and described the lived experiences of women living with BC in terms of their utilisation of traditional medicine.
A descriptive phenomenology design was used to purposively conduct 20 face-to-face in-depth interviews using a semi-structured interview guide. Data were analysed using NVivo-12 based on Collaizzi's framework for thematic data analysis.
Overall, five main themes emerged, namely: sources of knowledge on TM, motivations for using TM, treatment modalities, timing for the initiation of TM, the reasons for discontinuing use of TM, and the decision to seek orthodox medicine. Under the category of motivations for using TM, four themes emerged: financial difficulties and perceived cost effectiveness of TM, influence of social networks, including family and friends, assurance of non-invasive treatment, delays at the healthcare facility, and side effects of orthodox treatment. Non-invasive treatments included herbal concoctions, natural food consumption, and skin application treatments. Regarding the timing of initiation, TM was used in the initial stage of symptom recognition prior to the decision to seek orthodox medicine, and was also used complementarily or as an alternative after seeking orthodox medicine. However, patients eventually stopped using TM due to the persistence of symptoms and the progression of cancer to a more advanced stage, and disapproval by orthodox practitioners.
Women living with BC in Ghana utilise traditional medicine (TM) for many reasons and report their family, friends and the media as a main source of information. A combination of herbal concoctions and skin application modalities is obtained from TM practitioners to treat their BC. However, they eventually discontinue TM when symptoms persist or when disapproval is expressed by their orthodox healthcare providers. We conclude that there is an opportunity to better integrate TM into the standard of oncological care for BC patients.
患有乳腺癌（BC）的女性除了接受正统医学（OM）治疗外，还依赖于传统医学（TM）。因此，有必要了解 BC 患者是如何以及为何使用 TM 的。本研究旨在探讨和描述 BC 患者使用 TM 的生活体验。
采用描述性现象学设计，使用半结构式访谈指南，对 20 名 BC 患者进行了 20 次面对面深入访谈。使用 NVivo-12 软件根据 Collaizzi 的主题数据分析框架对数据进行分析。
总体而言，出现了五个主要主题，分别是：对 TM 的知识来源、使用 TM 的动机、治疗方式、TM 的起始时间、停止使用 TM 的原因以及寻求 OM 的决定。在使用 TM 的动机类别下，出现了四个主题：经济困难和 TM 的成本效益、社会网络（包括家人和朋友）的影响、保证非侵入性治疗、医疗保健机构的延误和 OM 治疗的副作用。非侵入性治疗包括草药制剂、天然食物消费和皮肤应用治疗。在启动 TM 的时间方面，在决定寻求 OM 治疗之前，患者会在出现症状时立即使用 TM 进行治疗，也会在寻求 OM 治疗后作为补充或替代疗法使用。然而，由于症状持续存在和癌症发展到更晚期，以及 OM 从业者的反对，患者最终停止使用 TM。
加纳的 BC 患者出于多种原因使用 TM，他们的家人、朋友和媒体是其主要信息来源。他们从 TM 从业者那里获得草药制剂和皮肤应用疗法来治疗 BC。然而，当症状持续存在或 OM 治疗提供者表示反对时，他们最终会停止使用 TM。我们得出的结论是，有机会将 TM 更好地整合到 BC 患者的肿瘤护理标准中。
