KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUTE AND PRACTICE TOWARDS TRADITIONAL MEDICINE AMONG UNDERGRADATE STUDENT IN SPHMMC

Abstract

Abstract Background: World Health Organization atlas refers to traditional medicine as health practices, approaches, knowledge and beliefs incorporating plant, animal and mineral based medicines, spiritual therapies and manual techniques applied individually or in combination to treat, diagnose, and prevent illnesses or maintain wellbeing. Traditional medicine is divided into three different categories. These are codified medical systems, folk medicine and allied medicine. Majority of the Ethiopian population (80%) depends on traditional medicine for health care. Objectives: This research was conducted with the aim of determining knowledge, attitude and practice towards traditional medicine among undergraduate students in SPHMMC. Methods: A descriptive cross sectional study was used. It was conducted on 151 randomly selected students among the undergraduate student in SPHMMC. Data was collected using self-administered questionnaires. The collected data was manually checked for completeness and inserted and analyzed by the SPSS software. Result: Most of the students; 62.4% have good knowledge, more than half; 52.4% have favorable attitude. However, only 38.4% of the study participants have good practice. Conclusion and recommendation: Despite having good knowledge and attitude in more than half of the students, there is poor practice and these may be due to having access to modern health care as the study was conducted in medical students. It is the researcher’s recommendation to include some courses in the medical training to expand the students’ knowledge and encourage their practice.