A Survey on the Attitude of Citizens towards Traditional Medicine: A Case study of Evaz District, Iran in 2018

Background: Traditional medicine is a collection of knowledge, skills, and masters based on the theories and experiences of native cultures that are used to prevent, diagnose and treat mental and physical illnesses. Considering the difference in attitudes of the community towards traditional medicine and in directing public opinion towards this method of treatment, it is important to measure people s attitude towards traditional medicine. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the attitude of citizens in Evaz district regarding traditional medicine.Methods: This descriptive-expository study was carried out on 130 people in Evaz district in 2018through a randomized sampling. The data collection tool was a research-made questionnaire by Montazeriet al. with Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.72. This questionnaire consists of 22 questions in two sections, 6 questions related to demographic information and 16 questions about citizens attitudes assessment, whose validity and reliability were confirmed. Data were analyzed using spss ver.21 software.Results: Individuals with a roughly equal proportion in terms of gender participated in the study, and one of the interviewees had a college degree and a non-university degree. A high percentage of interviewees (76.5%) believed that traditional medicine was less costly than modern medicine. The highest percentages of citizens with 83.1% and 95.4% had a great tendency to use traditional medicine, due to lack of response from modern medicine (or conventional medicine) methods and more to traditional medicine, who was interested in using traditional medicine. Also, the majority of them (73.1%) believed that their high tendency to use the traditional way due to its historical and cultural background.Conclusion: Considering that citizens have a high tendency to use traditional medicine, policymakers and the Ministry of Health need to be well-informed and well-informed on the centers and traditional medicine providers to pave the way for the spread of this valuable heritage. . It is also highly desirable to include courses in medical and paramedical sciences. Making more publicity through mass media, especially television, and holding short-term courses in this area can be beneficial

Keywords:

Attitude , Traditional medicine , Citizens , Evaz