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.