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Introduction: The study was conducted in 2019 and 2020 across 19 Traditional Medicine Units in Bhutan with the objective to assess the socio-demographic characteristics and disease patterns of patients seeking Traditional Medicine services. Method: This was a cross-sectional study and structured questionnaires were used for the interview. Data was gathered from 19 Traditional Medicine Units affiliated with 20-bedded hospitals. Disease diagnoses were recorded as per the Bhutan TM Disease Code. Results: A total of 1541 patients voluntarily participated in the survey. Of these, 950 (61.65%) were new patients, 946 were females (61.39%), 1514 (98.31%) were Bhutanese and 26 (1.96%) were non-Bhutanese. The majority of service recipients were farmers 873 (56.76%). The maximum visitors were from the eastern region (700, 45.43%) and the least was from the southern part of the country (88, 5.71%). The age range of participants spanned from 15 to 106 years, with a mean age of 43.75 (±16.32) years. Among the 56 different diseases documented during the survey, the highest prevalence was observed for tsakar (neurological disorder): 271 (16.76%), followed by phoney (gastrointestinal disorder): 180 (16.76%) and yama gosin (sinusitis): 139 (8.60%). Conclusion: The usage of Traditional Medicine is popular among all ages of Bhutanese citizens and international visitors. Tsakar and phoney disorders were the most common conditions requiring medical intervention.
Singye et al. (Thu,) studied this question.
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