Revealing the popularity of traditional medicine in light of multiple recourses and outcome measurements from a user's perspective in Ghana

Traditional medicine is known to be popular in sub-Saharan Africa, where over 80% have reported its utilization. It is claimed to be easily accessible, affordable, available and acceptable, but little is known about at which stage of treatment-seeking individuals turn to traditional medicines and the resulting satisfaction once used. This is due to a paucity of quantitative demand data on how many recourses of care people take for one episode of illness, whether individuals use traditional medicines as a secondary option to orthodox medicines, and if used, how satisfied they are with results. This study presents descriptive data from fieldwork carried out on 772 households in two regions of Ghana to ascertain actions taken for self-reported episodes of acute and previously diagnosed chronic diseases. Quantitative results that show by looking merely at first recourse, use of traditional medicines is fairly low, but once second recourses are accounted for there is a doubling and tripling of incidence of traditional medicine use for acute and chronic diseases, respectively. A commonly used patient-reported outcome measurement, the EuroQol 5 Dimension (EQ5D), is used to measure satisfaction before and after traditional medicine use, to reveal significantly positive changes. The study shows that whilst individuals are highly satisfied with traditional medicine, it is more often the second recourse of treatment with a revealed preference for orthodox medicines as a first recourse. This suggests that research is needed to investigate why individuals turn to traditional medicine only as a second recourse and to clarify the insufficiencies of orthodox treatment. Policies which guide individuals to take the most efficient recourses for given symptoms, and further exploration of key reasons behind high levels of satisfaction following utilization, are encouraged.