Abstract
BackgroundAssociation between socioeconomic status and medicinal herbs (MH) are rarely documented in Iran. Our goal was to measure and decompose socioeconomic inequalities in MH use among Iranian households.MethodsThe data used in this cross-sectional study were extracted from the 2018 Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) (N = 38,859). Data on MH use, age, gender, and education status of the head of household; a constructed wealth index of household (as a proxy for household’s socioeconomic status); and place of residence (urban or rural) were obtained from the survey. Publicly available province-level data on Human Development Index (HDI) were obtained from the Institute for Management Research at Radbound University. We used the concentration curve and the normalized concentration index (Cn) to measure the magnitude of socioeconomic inequalities in MH among Iranian households. The Cn was decomposed to identify the main determinants of socioeconomic inequalities in MH in Iran.ResultsThe overall prevalence of MH use among Iranian households was 4.7% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 4.5 to 4.9%) in the last month before data collection. The Cn for MH use for the whole of samples was 0.1519; 95% CI = 0.1254 to 0.1784; suggesting a higher concentration of MH use among the households with high socioeconomic level. The decomposition analysis indicated that the main contributing factors to the concentration of MH use were the economic status of households, development status of the province, and education level of the household head.ConclusionsThis study demonstrated that MH use is more concentrated among socioeconomically advantaged households in Iran and its provinces. This finding might contrast with the widespread belief that wealthy and socioeconomically advantaged populations, compared to low SES groups, tend to seek disproportionately more modern medical treatments and medications than MH. Understanding the factors affecting MH use, socioeconomic inequality in use of MH and its determinants provide an opportunity for health policymakers to design effective evidence-based interventions among providers and consumers of MH.
Highlights
Association between socioeconomic status and medicinal herbs (MH) are rarely documented in Iran
While there is some evidence on the prevalence of MH use and its key determinants in Iran, there is no information on socioeconomic-related inequalities in MH use at the national and sub-national levels
This study demonstrated that MH use is more concentrated among households with high socioeconomic status (SES) in Iran and its provinces
Summary
Association between socioeconomic status and medicinal herbs (MH) are rarely documented in Iran. The use of medicinal herbs (MH) is increasing both in developing and developed countries [1, 2]. As per World Health Organization (WHO) definition, traditional medicine is “the sum total of the knowledge, skill, and practices based on the theories, beliefs, and experiences indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illness” [2]. The term complementary medicine refers to “a broad set of health care practices that are not part of that country’s own tradition or conventional medicine and are not fully integrated into the dominant health-care system” [2]. MH is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as “herbs, herbal materials, herbal preparations and finished herbal products, that contain as active ingredients parts of plants, or plant materials, or combinations thereof” [2, 4]
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