Perception of the community towards food/beverage/herb use concurrently with drugs and their possible interactions
The perception of the community participants towards the use of food, beverages and herbs concurrently with drugs and their possible interaction is represented in Table 2, Section 1. The study findings showed that 524 (66.4%) of the participants agreed that food and herbs could treat diseases. More than half of them 462 (58.6%) thought that medications could interact with the action of drugs, change their action or cause side effects with food, beverages, and herbs. About 34% of the responses disputed that the concomitant use of drugs with medicinal plants or herbs would improve their effects, while almost similar percentage of participants (38.4%) answered ‘sometimes’. Similar findings were found upon asking if treating diseases with medicinal plants or herbs is better than conventional drugs, as most of them answered ‘no’ and ‘sometimes, 36.9 % and 45.6%, respectively. Finally, a total of 473 (59.9%) participants reported that children and the elderly are the most likely categories to experience drug interactions with food, beverages, and herbs.
Attitude and practice of community towards the use of food/beverage/herb concurrently with drugs
During the past twelve months, only 41 (5.2%) participants have used drugs concomitantly with medicinal plants or herbs on daily basis, while the other participants use that combination less frequently. Furthermore, 641 (81.2%) of the study participants admitted that they do not administer their drugs with any drinks other than water, while the others (18.8%) said that the medication was consumed with juices, tea, coffee, or milk (Table 2, Section 2).
Seventy percent of the study participants reported that they used medicinal plants or herbs to treat specific diseases or to boost their immune system. Then, they mentioned several medicinal plants and herbs they used frequently. A short answer question was used to identify these herbs/plants as illustrated in Figure 1, A. Upon asking the participants about the potentially treatable diseases using medicinal plants and herbs, they were able to choose more than one option (respiratory, gastrointestinal track…etc.). A total of 305 (38.7%) chose multiple options, mostly respiratory-related illnesses and gastrointestinal tract ‘stomach/intestinal problems. About 166 (21%) of the participants selected the respiratory illnesses ‘cold, cough and influenza’ alone. A similar percentage of the participants, 165 (21%) preferred not to use medicinal plants and herbs to treat diseases, as can be seen in Figure 1, B.