Abstract
BackgroundMental health problems are a major public health concern worldwide. Evidence shows that African communities, including Uganda, use both modern and traditional healing systems. There is limited literature about the magnitude of psychological distress and associated factors among attendees of traditional healing practices. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and associated factors of psychological distress among attendees of traditional healing practices in two districts in Uganda.MethodsFace-to-face interviews with the Lusoga version of the Self Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20) were carried out with 400 patients over the age of 18 years attending traditional healing in Iganga and Jinja districts in Eastern Uganda. Patients were recruited consecutively in all the traditional healers' shrines that could be visited in the area. Persons with 6 or more positive responses to the SRQ were identified as having psychological distress. Prevalence was estimated and odds ratios of having psychological distress were obtained with multiple logistic regression analysis.Results387 questionnaire responses were analyzed. The prevalence of psychological distress in connection with attendance at the traditional healers' shrines was 65.1%. Having a co-wife and having more than four children were significantly associated with psyclogical distress. Among the socioeconomic indicators, lack of food and having debts were significantly associated with psychological distress. The distressed group was more likely to need explanations for ill health. Those who visited both the healer and a health unit were less likely to be distressed.ConclusionThis study provides evidence that a substantial proportion of attendees of traditional healing practices suffer from psychological distress. Associated factors include poverty, number of children, polygamy, reason for visiting the healer and use of both traditional healing and biomedical health units. These findings may be useful for policy makers and biomedical health workers for the engagement with traditional healers.
Highlights
Mental health problems are a major public health concern worldwide
The World Health Organisation (WHO) states that the quarter of the world's population who have common forms of mental illness should be treated in Primary Health Care (PHC) settings[1]
There may be a number of reasons for this but the most notable are the burden of infectious diseases in PHC settings in Africa and/or lack of understanding of patients' explanatory models of mental illness among providers of PHC services [4,6,7,8]
Summary
Mental health problems are a major public health concern worldwide. Evidence shows that African communities, including Uganda, use both modern and traditional healing systems. There is limited literature about the magnitude of psychological distress and associated factors among attendees of traditional healing practices. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and associated factors of psychological distress among attendees of traditional healing practices in two districts in Uganda. One of WHO's goals is to promote appropriate mental health policies for maximum utilization of locally available resources at country level, including traditional healers' services. In Uganda, the Ministry of Health's policy regarding traditional medicine has been to call for its recognition and incorporation in the country's health care delivery [10]. No legal framework is in place for the practice of traditional medicine This lack of a legal framework and mechanisms for implementation has made it difficult to implement the policy[11]
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