Demographic survey of traditional healers and their practices in Mushin local government area of Lagos state and Ifedore local government area of Ondo state, Nigeria

Abstract

Traditional Healers (THs) are known to play an important role in health care delivery system in Nigeria and the majority of the population patronise them because of easy accessibility and affordability. However, traditional healing methods are generally associated with occultism, unhygienic environment and lack of documentation of mode of practice. It is thus imperative that their present level of practice should be upgraded to an acceptable standard which will eventually lead to their co-recognition or full integration into the health care delivery system in Nigeria. A demographic survey was conducted on some of the THs and their practices in Mushin (within 7 out of 8 health districts) and Ifedore (within the 7 health districts) Local government areas (LGA) of Lagos and Osun States respectively. The surveys revealed that while the majority (about 76%) of the practitioners in Ifedore LGA were operating their clinics on part-time basis. The majority (about 98%) were operating on full-time basis in Mushin LGA. About 52% (in Ifedore) and 52% (in Mushin) used only medical methods for treating their patients while 26% (in Mushin) and 48% (in Ifedore) used both medical and occultic methods. The survey showed that the THs are contributing their quota in the management of diseases especially at the primary health care level. However, there is a need for the government to establish traditional healers' schools to retrain the existing healers in basic medical practices and to train more practitioners that will increase the number of health manpower at primary care level.