| This survey research studied 156 households to investigate factors affecting traditional herb using behaviors by residents in tungsriudom diatrict, ubon ratchathani province so that some guidelines could be provided for people on how to appropriately treat themselves with traditional herbs. The data were drawn from questionnaires and analyzed by both descriptive and analytical statistics, chi-square as well as Pearsons correlation analysis.
The study reveals that more than half of the respondents are male (62.8%), aged over 60 (35.9%) and married (81.4%), with primary education (88.5%). Most of them are farmers (86.5%) whose monthly incomes are lower than 5,000 baht (87.8%). At least one of their family members is afflicted with a lingering disease (54.5%). They have a high level of knowledge about traditional herbs (83.3%), but their attitudes towards the herbs are moderate (50.6%). Herbs are not abundant in their village (70.5%), and they think the kind of herb determines its price (66.7%). In their village, they can find a traditional doctor (77.6%) whose house is less than 1 kilometer away on average. Also, they can go to a nearby village to see a traditional doctor (56.4%) who lives 3 kilometers away on average. A small number of natural herb areas are found in the village (26.3%) and in the nearby villages (16.7%). Similarly, there are only few traditional herb drugstores in the village (9%) and the nearby villages (8.3%). However, some herb peddlers are available (54.5%). In addition, few factors promote traditional herb use (45.5%).
According to the study on herbal treatments, traditional herbs are occasionally used (91%), and they are used to treat minor ailments (91%). The types most frequently used are boiling medicine (86.5%), followed by hot compresses (76.3%) with the least being poultices (46.2%). Herbal medicine is usually used without the accompaniment of modern medicine (78.8%). The majority of the respondents get herbal medicine from familiars (75.6%), and they grow the herbs themselves (75%). Overall, traditional herbs are used either at the low level (37.8%) or at the high level (37.2%). In summary, factors associated with traditional herb use are occupations (p-value = 0.046), knowledge (r = 0.198, p-value = 0.013), attitudes (r = 0.161,p-value = 0.045), availability
of herb areas in the village (r = o.396, p-value = 0.000), distance to a traditional doctor (r = 0.1369,
p-value = 0.000), distance to the natural herb area in the village(r = 0.225, p-value = 0.005), distance to the natural herb area in the nearby village (r = 0.275,p-value = 0.001), distance to the herb drugstore in the nearby village (r = 0.174, p-value = 0.030), frequency of herb peddler arrivals (r = 0.320, p- value = 0.000) and promoting factors (r = 0.479, p-value = 0.000). |