There is an increasing public interest in the use of TM internationally, yet there is a paucity of research on the use of TM by the public in the dental setting. This study aimed to explore the views, use of and access to TM in dentistry among different ethnic groups residing in New Zealand. Qualitative study and in-depth interviews were used. An individual semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analysed using an inductive approach to identify the main themes. Three main themes were extracted from interviews with 14 participants from diverse cultural backgrounds: [1] the perspectives of TM varied among different ethnic groups and included the involvement of spirituality, the environment, knowledge and usage of TM. [2] The TM that was used by different ethnic groups included plants, herbs, massage, and other forms of healing. Reasons for choosing traditional or western medicines generally included family tradition, access to TM, and finding a competent traditional healer. [3] The barriers in accessing TM included the paucity of traditional healers, difficulty accessing plants and cost, therefore most would look for a substitution or alternative treatment. Even though the access to these TM in New Zealand was a challenge for the majority of the participants, they are still considered the first-line treatment for the majority. This study provided dental practitioners an insight into the different sort of TM used by the population. By understanding and acknowledging the use of TM, dental practitioners could create a supportive environment for patients to disclose their use of TM and allow them to educate patients on the use of TM.

/pdf/use-of-traditional-medicine-for-dental-care-by-different-5axm1crmes.pdf

Use of traditional medicine for dental care by different ethnic groups in New Zealand.

Abstract As many low- and middle-income countries scale up community health worker (CHW) programmes to achieve universal health coverage, ensuring quality as well as access is critical. Health system responsiveness (HSR) is a core domain of quality patient-centred care but has not been widely measured in CHW-delivered care. We report results from a household survey measuring HSR and health systems’ quality of CHW-delivered care in two Liberian counties where the national CHW programme of Community Health Assistants (CHAs) for communities ≥5 km from a health centre has been implemented. We conducted a cross-sectional population-based household survey in 2019 in Rivercess (RC) and Grand Gedeh (GG) counties, using a two-stage cross-sectional cluster sampling approach. We included validated HSR questions on six responsiveness domains and patient-reported health system outcomes, such as satisfaction and trust in the CHA’s skills and abilities. The HSR questions were administered to women aged 18–49 years who reported seeking care from a CHA in the 3 months prior to the survey. A composite responsiveness score was calculated and divided into tertiles. Multivariable analysis using Poisson regression with log link and adjusting for respondent characteristics was used to determine the association between responsiveness and patient-reported health system outcomes. The proportion of individuals rating responsiveness as very good or excellent was similar across all domains within a district, with ratings being lower in RC (23–29%) than in GG (52–59%). High ratings in both counties were seen for high trust in the CHA’s skills and abilities (GG 84%, RC 75%) and high confidence in the CHA (GG 58%, RC 60%). Compared with women in the lowest responsiveness tertile (score ≤3), women in the highest tertile (score \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{upgreek} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document} }{}$ \ge $\end{document}4.25) were significantly more likely to report high quality of CHA-delivered care (prevalence ratio, PR = 14.1), very good/excellent at meeting health needs (PR = 8.0), high confidence in the CHA to provide future care (PR = 2.4), and a high level of trust in CHA’s skills and abilities (PR = 1.4). Controlling for respondent characteristics, the composite responsiveness score was significantly associated with all patient-reported health system outcomes (P < 0.001). We found that HSR was associated with important patient-reported health system quality outcomes, including satisfaction, trust, and confidence in the CHA. Measuring patients’ experience and outcomes of care is important to complement more common measures of technical quality for CHW-delivered care to ensure that this domain of quality is central to the community health programme design and delivery.

/pdf/measuring-health-system-responsiveness-in-a-national-1j16th8j.pdf

Measuring health system responsiveness in a national community health worker primary care programme in rural Liberia

This article looks at Western Medicine and Traditional Medicine and explores the implications of these coexisting but very diverse systems of healthcare. We have sourced information from the World Health Organisations, Strategy and Guidelines in Traditional Medicine Use and, Guidelines for assessing quality of herbal medicines with reference to contaminates and residues and a Study on Traditional Medicine use in Dunedin by final year Otago University Medical students. We offer a perspective on the roles of academic institutions and Traditional Medicine/Traditional Healers in the provision of universal healthcare coverage in the Pacific.

Traditional Medicine and Western Medicine, Coexisting Systems and Practices. A Perspective on the way forward

Despite the availability of COVID-19 vaccines, vaccination uptake remains low in Liberia. Social norms, and in particular an individual’s family preferences can have a strong normative influence on health behavior. However, few studies across the globe have explored how behavioral intent about COVID-19 vaccination among household members affects individual vaccination acceptance, particularly in rural, resource-limited settings. We respond to this gap in knowledge by analyzing data from a household survey of women in rural Liberia with the goal of understanding how household COVID-19 beliefs and vaccine behavioral intent correlated with those of individual household members. Data was analyzed from a household survey of 2,620 women aged 15-49 in 2,201 households in rural Grand Bassa County, Liberia, from March to April 2021. The survey included a COVID-19 module on protective health behaviors and intention to accept a COVID-19 vaccine when available. Each household was defined as being concordantly vaccine-hesitant, concordantly vaccine-accepting, or discordant. A multivariable logistic regression model was fitted to identify correlates of concordant acceptance, adjusting for potential confounders. The survey found that only approximately one in three households in rural Liberia were fully COVID-19 vaccine accepting. About 42% of households had discordant views on the vaccine, while 33% had concordantly accepting views, and 25% had concordantly hesitant views. The demographic characteristics of households with different vaccine beliefs were similar. Having a household member who accepted the COVID-19 vaccine was associated with an 18.1 percentage point greater likelihood of an individual accepting the vaccine (95% confidence interval, CI=7.3-28.9%, P=0.001). Social norms around vaccine acceptance within households are strongly associated with individual acceptance. Interventions that target hesitant households and individuals could have a significant impact on vaccine acceptance rates.

/pdf/relationship-between-household-member-vaccine-acceptance-and-3h5529xh.pdf

Relationship between household member vaccine acceptance and individual vaccine acceptance among women in rural Liberia

Abstract Objectives To determine the prevalence of eczema among children in New Zealand. Methods Population‐based retrospective observational study utilising national pharmaceutical dispensing records for topical corticosteroids and emollients for all New Zealand children aged 0–14 years from 1st January 2006 to 31st December 2019. Data are reported using descriptive statistics, with comparisons between ethnicities and socioeconomic quintiles undertaken with rate ratios. Results Based on dispensing data, the prevalence of eczema for New Zealand children aged 0–14 years in 2018 was 14.0% (95% CI 14.0%–14.1%), with prevalence decreasing in older age groups (children aged &lt;1 year 26.0% (25.6%–26.4%); children aged 10–14 years 8.8% (8.7%–8.9%)). Prevalence was higher in Pacific children (23.6% (23.3%–24.0%)), but slightly lower in Māori children (13.2% (13.0%–13.3%)). Conclusion Eczema is a common condition affecting a considerable proportion of children in New Zealand. This study provides nationwide paediatric prevalence data for New Zealand, and highlights the increased burden of eczema in Pacific children. Inequity in dispensing of topical corticosteroids is postulated to explain the reduced rates found for Māori children compared to previous studies. These results support the need for further research to determine factors contributing to differing eczema prevalence rates in New Zealand. 

Childhood eczema prevalence in New Zealand using topical corticosteroid dispensing data

Background: Traditional medicine (TM) has been practiced in the Pacific islands over many years, and Pacific peoples continue to use TM after migrating to New Zealand (NZ). There is limited published literature on Pacific TM use in NZ. This study explores the views, use of, and access to TM of Pacific Peoples living in Dunedin, NZ. The information provides a valuable contribution in an important area where there is a paucity of information, and will also inform content development for the Pacific health curriculum for health professional courses at the University of Otago.
Methods: Cultural processes were used to inform and guide the recruitment of participants and data collection phases. Four focus groups were conducted with 15 Pacific Island community members. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed using an inductive approach to identify main themes.
Results: Three main themes emerged from the data: Firstly, perspectives of TM from Pacific peoples, was varied and included the importance of spirituality, the environment and inherited knowledge. Secondly, the use of TM which incorporated plants, massage, diet, family togetherness and other forms of healing. Reasons for the use and differences in uptake between groups were also identified. The last main theme identified was barriers in accessing TM, that included the scarcity of traditional healers, resources, and cost.
Conclusion: The findings suggest Pacific peoples’ perspectives of TM encompassed a wide spectrum of views, knowledge and techniques. There were identified barriers in access and substitution where traditional ingredients were not available. Some expressed concern that TM use may decline due to loss of exposure and availability of resources. Other challenges are fewer traditional healers and relevant plants in New Zealand. Assisting Western health professionals to engender discussion and openness to TM use in Pacific Peoples is likely to support patient care.

Traditional Medicine Use in the Dunedin Pacific Community in New Zealand

Liberia launched its National Community Health Assistant Program in 2016, which seeks to ensure that all people living 5 kilometers or farther from a health facility have access to trained, supplied, supervised, and paid community health workers (CHWs). This study aims to evaluate the impact of the national program following implementation in Grand Bassa County in 2018 using data from population-based surveys that included information on 1291 illness episodes. We measured before-to-after changes in care for childhood illness by qualified providers in a portion of the county that implemented in a first phase compared to those which had not yet implemented. We also assessed changes in whether children received oral rehydration therapy for diarrhea and malaria rapid diagnostic tests if they had a fever by a qualified provider (facility based or CHW). For these analyses, we used a difference-in-differences approach and adjusted for potential confounding using inverse probability of treatment weighting. We also assessed changes in the source from which care was received and examined changes by key dimensions of equity (distance from health facilities, maternal education, and household wealth). We found that care of childhood illness by a qualified provider increased by 60.3 percentage points (95%CI 44.7–76.0) more in intervention than comparison areas. Difference-in-differences for oral rehydration therapy and malaria rapid diagnostic tests were 37.6 (95%CI 19.5–55.8) and 38.5 (95%CI 19.9–57.0) percentage points, respectively. In intervention areas, care by a CHW increased from 0 to 81.6% and care from unqualified providers dropped. Increases in care by a qualified provider did not vary significantly by household wealth, remoteness, or maternal education. This evaluation found evidence that the Liberian National Community Health Assistant Program has increased access to effective care in rural Grand Bassa County. Improvements were approximately equal across three measured dimensions of marginalization.

/pdf/impact-of-the-liberian-national-community-health-assistant-72ez5grn.pdf

Impact of the Liberian National Community Health Assistant Program on childhood illness care in Grand Bassa County, Liberia

Popular Tasks used by Researchers

How can I help with your research?

Get more enhanced response by uploading the PDFs you want me to reference.

No relevant PDFs in your library

SciSpace is the AI research assistant for academics. Run systematic literature reviews on 280M+ papers, and write papers with cited sources. Trusted by 1M+ students, PhDs & researchers.

SciSpace | AI for Research

We encountered an error while loading the panel. Please try refreshing the page.

Something went wrong

Analyze PDFs

Code & Manuscripts

Funding & Grants

Literature & Patents

Medical & Clinical Data

Systematic Review

Visualize & Present

Web & Data

Build a Google Scholar-like website for your research.

Build a website

Create charts and images for your research

Create a Chart

Write a paper for submission to a journal

Draft a manuscript

Patent Search

Design eye-catching scientific posters in minutes.

Scientific Poster Generation

Systematic Literature Review

Anyone with the link can view this chat. You can switch it back to private anytime.

One task is running at the moment. Your messages will be shown right after.

Drag and drop or click here to browse

Loved by <highlight>1 million+</highlight> researchers

Extract a list of specific topics and their sources from unstructured text

Topics

Compare and analyze relevant papers that matches with your search

Papers

Get insights from PDFs and bookmarked papers from your library

My library

Recent searches

Try searching for:

Catch AI-generated content in scholarly and non-scholarly content

{ai} Detector

Ai Writer

Get PDF Summaries, highlighted text explanations 

Chat with PDF

Effortlessly create in-text citations and bibliographies in APA and 2,500 other formats

Citation generator

Get explanations, summaries, and answers on academic papers

Ease up your research workflow with {scispace}'s cohort of exciting AI tools

Elevate your academic writing skills and convey your ideas the way you want

Paraphraser

Explore our range of reading and writing tools

Your file is being prepared and should be ready in a few minutes. If it's a large file, it might take a bit longer. You can close this window, and we'll email you the file when it's done.

You have reached a maximum limit of <strong>{limit}</strong> columns in the table. Remove at least <strong>1</strong> column to add or create another one.

Ben Grant

Author Tools

Chat about Author

Papers

Traditional Medicine Use in the Dunedin Pacific Community in New Zealand

Impact of the Liberian National Community Health Assistant Program on childhood illness care in Grand Bassa County, Liberia