This study investigated the gender differences in use of traditional and complementary medicine (TCM) in Ghana. Using an interviewer-administered questionnaire, we collected data from March to June 2013 from 324 randomly sampled adults in the Ashanti Region. The prevalence of TCM use in the prior 12 months was 86%. Females constituted the majority (61%) of TCM users. Female TCM users were more likely than male users to have had only a basic education, been traders (p ˂ .0001), and had health insurance (p ˂ .05). Using multiple logistic regression, TCM use was associated with urban residence for females (odds ratio [OR] = 7.82; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.28-47.83) but negatively related for males (OR = 0.032; 95% CI: 0.002-0.63). Being self-employed was associated with TCM use among males (OR = 7.62; 95% CI: 1.22-47.60), while females' TCM use was associated with higher income (OR = 3.72; 95% CI: 1.21-11.48) and perceived efficacy of TCM (OR = 5.60; 95% CI: 1.78-17.64). The African sociocultural structure vests household decision-making power in men but apparently not regarding TCM use, and the factors associated with TCM use largely differed by gender. These findings provide ingredients for effective health policy planning and evaluation. Adoption and modernization of TCM should apply a gendered lens.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 9. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 12 November 2017.
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#5,817,615
of 33,992,632 outputs
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#174
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Outputs of similar age
#72,796
of 355,280 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Women & Health
#10
of 17 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 33,992,632 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 82nd percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 980 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 9.4. This one has done well, scoring higher than 82% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 17 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 41st percentile – i.e., 41% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
