Toward integration of herbalism into orthodox medical practice: Perception of herbalists in Sokoto Northwest Nigeria

Background: Integrative system of health-care widens the horizon of health-care services where both allopathic and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practitioners play complementary role and make services more accessible, affordable, and safety monitoring is ensured. Objective: The objective of this study is to assess perception of herbalists on allopathic medicine and doctors. Settings and Design: The survey was carried out within Sokoto metropolis. Health services of the community were provided by a teaching hospital, 5 secondary levels hospitals and a host of primary health-care centers coupled with CAM. Herbalists were located mainly within the city located in 'Yarmarna, behind Maryam Abacha Children and Women Hospital and Kara herbs markets in the metropolis where they hawked herbs. This was a cross-sectional descriptive. Methods: Validated semi-structured interviewer-administered questionnaires were used to obtain information from the respondents. A sample of 92 herbalists was selected by multistage sampling technique. Selection of actual respondents who participated in the study was by proportionate allocation along the three major herbal centers. Results and Conclusion: The mean age of respondents was 53.1 ± 1.8 years. The mean age of years of experience in practice was 29.04 ± 1.7. On relationship with orthodox doctors, 50% admitted that it was poor while the remaining 19.6% and 30.4% described it as good and very good, respectively. More than 85% support integration of herbalism into orthodox medicine (95% confidence interval 3.67-12.12). The respondents expressed their enthusiasm to be integrated.