Abstract:
Background: Traditional bonesetters (TBS) are still highly used by people with fractures in Africa. There is widespread belief in our society that Traditional bone setters are better at fracture treatment than orthopedic doctors. Traditional Bone Setting has a large place as an alternative health care, despite modern health care's accessibility and availability.I sought to investigate the perception of healthcare providers on TBS and its associated factors on TBS services in Bahir Dar city hospitals, North West Ethiopia.
Objectives: The objective of this study was to assess the perception of health care providers on TBS and associated factors in Bahir Dar city hospitals, northwest Ethiopia, 2022.
Methods: A mixed-methods (concurrent quantitative qualitative) study was conducted among 439 health care providers in Bahir Dar city hospitals.Simple random sampling technique was used to select study participants from both public and private hospitals. The number of professionals from each hospital had been selected by simple random sampling techniques. For the qualitative assessment part, heterogeneous type purposive sampling technique had been used to select the study participants and data was collected from a total of 7 participants by semi structured interview guide. Structured and self-administered questionnaires were used to collect the data from health care providers in governmental and private selected hospitals.The collected data was entered, cleaned, coded, checked, with Epi data and analyzed using SPSS version 25.00. Descriptive statics were done to characterize socio demographic status of study participants. Bivariable and multivariable logistic regression analysis was used. AOR, COR and with 95% CI was calculated. P-value of < 0.05 was used as a cut of point to declare statistical significance.For the qualitative data, thematic analysis was done based on emerging themes in line with the study objectives.
Results: The study revealed that (60.4%) of health care providers had poor perception for traditional bone setting. Past experience(AOR=0.4;95%CI:0.24,0.66), educational level(AOR=0.07;95%CI:0.01,0.82), and area of clinical practice(AOR=2.93;95%CI:1.31,6.55) were statistically significant with health care providers perception on traditional bone setting. Cheaper fees (80.8%), cultural beliefs (86.3%) and accessibility (76.1%) were the main reason of patronizing TBSs by the community.For qualitative study, Majority of health care providers were males and most of the health care providers were married.
Conclusion and Recommendation: more than half of health care providers had poor perception towards traditional bone setters. Past experience, educational level (General practitioners and above) and area of clinical practice (being in orthopedic ward) were significantly associated factors with perception of health care providers to traditional bone setting. Therefore, we recommended to integrated traditional bone setters to modern medical practice to minimize complications of bone setting.
Key words: TBS, perception, health care providers