The perceived efficacy of western and traditional health care in an urban population in the Northern province, South Africa

The aim of the srudy was to examine the perceived efficacy of five different types of therapies (traditional herbalists, diviners, and prophets, western medicine and psychology) in treating 25 common complaints ranging from AIDS to diarrhoea. Participants were interviewed face-to-face with a questionnaire measuring their state of health, their experience of traditional therapies, their sources of information about traditional therapies, and their perception of the efficacy of traditional and western therapies in the treatment of each condition. The majority of the participants clearly saw medical therapy as more effective in the treatment of most (18) complaints. Traditional therapy (practised by herbalists and diviners) was perceived as being more effective for traditional illness and equally effective for infertility, venereal disease, mental illness, and epilepsy, as well as equally ineffective for AIDS. Overall, western therapies were seen as significantly more effective than traditional therapies.