Perception of Use of Herbal and Orthodox Medicines in Parts of Abuja: A Pilot Study.

ABSTRACT

This study assessed respondents’ perception on packaging, affordability, availability, efficacy, and safety of use of herbal and orthodox medicine in the treatment of common diseases in Abuja. Structured questionnaires were administered to elicit information from 200 residents selected from five locations through a purposive sampling method and data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Orthodox medicines were rated higher than herbal medicine in term of preference, packaging, first-aid and uses. While in terms of affordability, adverse effect, natural and efficacious to the body, the respondents preferred herbal medicine. About Seventy percentage chose orthodox medicine as their first drug of choice while 28% preferred herbal medicine as their first drug of choice. 72.96% of the respondents have used herbal medicines without any side effect while 10.77% had experienced adverse effects from its use and 16.33% claimed they have never used herbal medicines for treatment before. The differences in the means of attributes of herbal and orthodox medicines were not statistically significant at P>0.05. The information obtained is in agreement with WHO statement that over 80% of the world’s population depends on traditional medicine for its primary health care.