The Prevalence and Patterns of Use of Herbal Medicine in Wad Madani, Sudan, 2016: A Community Based Cross-Sectional Study

Aim: Herbal medicine as part of conventional medicine is becoming a trend and (kambooj 2000) stated that they are being used by about 80% of the world population mainly in the developing countries, so we conducted a study aiming to determine the prevalence of use of herbal products and the causes of their use.

Methods: a descriptive cross-sectional community-based study was conducted on residents of Wad Madani locality, Sudan by distributing 150 structured questionnaires, investigating for the most common herbs used and their pattern of use. The prevalence of use was found to be 66.0% and the most common cause for use was the assumption by the participants that herbal products are more effective than conventional medicines, also the participants were found unaware of the possible interactions of herbs with conventional drugs and unaware of the lack of evidence-based information regarding herbal products.

Conclusion: this study confirms trends seen in other studies that there is a dramatic increase in herbal medicine use and health education to the public should be encouraged regarding the possible interactions of herbs with conventional drugs and the lack of evidence-based information in this area.

Keywords:Herbal medicine; Alternative medicine; Prevalence of use

Abbreviations:WHO: World Health Organization