Assessing the Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine among Selected Residents of Akure South Local Government Area, Ondo State, Nigeria

The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is now on the increase among the global populations because they are healthcare approaches that are used in conjunction with conventional medical interventions. The study is to assess the use of complementary and alternative medicine among the selected residents of Akure South Local Government area of Ondo State, South Western Nigeria, using quantitative research methodology where information was elicited from 300 respondents between the ages of 25 years and 64 years and secondary data were obtained through textbooks, publications and internet. The participants were selected across the 15 communities within the 11 political wards that constitute the study area through multistage sampling technique. The opinions of the respondents were assessed through self-administered questionnaire with open and close-ended questions. The collected data were analysed with descriptive statistics such as simple frequency, percentages, bar chart and histogram. The findings of the study revealed that the rate of CAM use is high in the study area as CAM is widely consumed for treatment and prevention of ailments like hypertension, diabetes, cancer, asthma, infertility, HIV/AIDS, malaria, improvement of the quality of life and health maintenance. It was also discovered from the findings that the consumption is commonly patronized because of poverty, unaffordable conventional medicines, religion factor, illiteracy, dissatisfaction with conventional medical care, and its abuse can lead to deformity, economic loss, insomnia, mental disorder and untimely death. In the same vein, the most commonly used CAM revealed by the findings are herbal preparations of biological products, followed by faith-based and mind/body therapies. The study concluded that the use of CAM has gained widespread acceptance among the residents of Akure South Local Government because of their desire to get remedies for their health challenge as the costs of conventional health care in the available health facilities continues to skyrocket. It is therefore recommended that the government through its agencies should control the unregulated production and consumption of these alternative medicines to mitigate the adverse effects and make provision for affordable health for the citizenry.