Table 4.

Effect of the occurrence of an illness in the previous 12 months on the number of plant species used for health promotion, disease prevention, and cure. Mean numbers of plant species (±standard error) used are provided. Data on number of plants used were not normally distributed, so P values were derived form a Mann-Whitney U test.

Health status	N (%)	Plants used for health promotion (mean no. spp. ± std. error)	Plants used for disease prevention (mean no. spp. ± std. error)	Plants used for cure (mean no. spp. ± std. error)
Ill last 12 months	174 (64)	1.10 ± 1.3	0.71 ± 1.1	1.05 ± 1.3
Not ill	96 (36)	0.81 ± 1.2	0.47 ± 1.2	0.12 ± 0.5
Total	270 (100)	1.0 ± 1.3	0.62 ± 1.2	0.72 ± 1.1
P value	—	0.44	0.006	<0.0001