Table 4.
Distribution of alternative medicine use by type of Nnn-communicable disease among studied patients in last year.
| Alternative treatment pattern | Non-communicable disease | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Diabetes mellitus | Hypertension | Cardiovascular disease | Chronic lung disease | |||||
| n=64 | n=44 | n=13 | n=12 | |||||
| n | % | n | % | n | % | n | % | |
| Medicinal herbs/biological-based medicine | 22 | 34.4 | 13 | 29.5 | 4 | 30.8 | 2 | 16.7 |
| Spiritual therapy/mind-body systems | 3 | 4.7 | 6 | 13.6 | 1 | 7.7 | 0 | 0.0 |
| Alternative systems | 8 | 12.5 | 12 | 27.3 | 2 | 15.4 | 3 | 25.0 |
| Physical therapy/body manipulations | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 1 | 7.7 | 0 | 0.0 |
| Local/folk remedies | 0 | 0.0 | 3 | 6.8 | 1 | 7.7 | 1 | 8.3 |
| Medicinal herbs/biological-based medicine + spiritual therapy/mind-body systems | 12 | 18.8 | 1 | 2.3 | 2 | 15.4 | 1 | 8.3 |
| Medicinal herbs/biological- based medicine + Alternative systems | 10 | 15.6 | 4 | 9.1 | 0 | 0.0 | 1 | 8.3 |
| Medicinal herbs/biological- based medicine + local/folk remedies | 9 | 14.1 | 2 | 4.5 | 1 | 7.7 | 3 | 25.0 |
| Combination of any ≥3 | 0 | 0.0 | 3 | 6.8 | 1 | 7.7 | 1 | 8.3 |
Total is higher than the number of patients who reported the use of alternative medicine (n=124) as 29 patients presented with more than one non-communicable disease and 5 patients presented with more than two non-communicable diseases.