Table 5.
Attitudes and practices of the traditional therapists (N = 171)
| Number (%) | p-value | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Regarding the patients who you have seen in the past three months, what proportion do you think had neurological disorders? | Less than 20% | 16 (9.4) | 0.023 |
| 21 to 40% | 105 (61.4) | ||
| 41 to 60% | 32 (18.7) | ||
| 61 to 80% | 11 (6.4) | ||
| More than 80% | 7 (4.1) | ||
| What are the symptoms that allow you to recognize neurological disorders? | Impairments of normal behavior | 12 (7.0) | < 0.001 |
| Epileptic fits | 27 (15.8) | ||
| Psychomotor agitation | 16 (9.4) | ||
| Motor or sensory disorder | 32 (18.7) | ||
| Change of the morphology of the body (one side and/or the face) | 44 (25.7) | ||
| Loss of neurosensory function (speech, sight) | 17 (9.9) | ||
| Headaches | 23 (13.5) | ||
| Have you already referred a patient with this type of illness to the hospital? | Rarely | 38 (22.2) | 0.001 |
| Sometimes | 107 (62.6) | ||
| Very often | 19 (11.1) | ||
| Never | 7 (4.1) | ||
| To improve the treatment of neurological disorders, what should be done to improve your collaboration with the conventional medicine physicians? | The doctors should take into account our existence | 61 (35.7) | 0.065 |
| We should be promoted more by the State | 41 (24.0) | ||
| Mutual respect between CM and TM needs to be promoted | 13 (7.6) | ||
| The conventional doctors need to provide us with feedback after receiving our patients | 35 (20.5) | ||
| The state should promote this collaboration between TM and CM | 21 (12.3) | ||
| What are the elements that led you to refer patients to the hospital? | We refer the patients for who the illness has a strictly physical cause | 58 (33.9) | 0.03 |
| Certain patients ask to go to the hospital | 19 (11.1) | ||
| The cases that require a mixed treatment (TM and CM) | 32 (18.7) | ||
| When we have finished taking care of the non-physical supernatural aspects | 43 (25.1) | ||
| When the patient is not able to pay our fees | 19 (11.1) | ||
| Why do you think patients consult with you instead of going directly to conventional medicine? | Because they trust us | 61 (35.7) | 0.060 |
| We have a better understanding of the local pathologies | 32 (18.7) | ||
| We have better control of the environment of the patients | 42 (24.6) | ||
| The conventional doctors are inaccessible to patients | 23 (13.5) | ||
| We are less expensive than CM | 13 (7.6) |