Hypertension is a common chronic health problem worldwide due to contributing factors such as obesity, physical inactivity, unhealthy diet and changes in lifestyle. The standard of care for hypertension in South Africa is prescription medication, as well as a stepwise programme; this treatment approach is for the treatment of hypertension according to severity using diuretics, beta-blockers, vasodilators in a stepwise progressive manner. In South Africa, traditional herbal medicines have been used to treat many ailments especially hypertension. Garlic and African olive has been reported as herbal medicines that have anti-hypertensive properties and may be used to control hypertension, either individually or in combination.The objective of this study is to 1) prevalence of these traditional herbal medicines will be investigated and 2) determine the prevalence of garlic and/ or African olive use among hypertensive patients lieu of/or in combination with prescription medication.The study design was cross-sectional, comprising of two phases. Phase one was the administration of questionnaires concerning the participants’ demographics, medical/clinical history, chronic illness and traditional herbal treatment. One hundred and eighty participants from Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiological study (PURE) cohort were administered questionnaires. Of the 180 participants, 139 indicated that they are hypertensive, 30 hypertensive participants were selected to participate in the in-depth interviews. Phase two was divided into two parts which were detailed interviews including in-depth interviews and a focus group discussion. The focus group discussion was conducted with a convenience sample of 10 hypertensive patients who were available on the day of data collection. The questionnaire data was analysed with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and the interviews and focus group discussion was analysed using thematic content analysis.The results show that the participants with hypertension who are on prescription medication are also using traditional herbs, garlic and African olive as part of a dualistic health care treatment for their hypertension. The use of garlic is more prevalent than the use of African olive, as African olive was not well known among the participants.The results will facilitate in the acknowledgment of traditional herbal medicine use for hypertension, as either a home remedy for (other) chronic conditions or treatment in combination with prescription medication. It also highlights the necessity to educate participants and healthcare providers in the use of traditional herbal medicine. Furthermore, healthcare workers needs to be trained about THM and should also be obligated to ask about traditional herbal medicine among their patients. / >Magister Scientiae - MSc

Western herbal medicine (WHM) is a whole system of medicine that is based on beliefs and practices that evolved distinct from conventional Western medicine. Practitioners of WHM use naturally-occurring crude plant materials, such as roots or flowers with little processing for persons with chronic disease. Herbal medicines are formulated and designed for each person's unique symptom variations, energetic profile, cause and supporting mechanisms of the health issue. This approach to herbal medicine is not explicated in the literature and contrasts the use of highly-processed herb products in a one-size-fits-all approach that fails to reflect WHM as a whole complex system. The purpose of this study was to develop a grounded theory explaining the basic social psychological process WHM practitioners use to formulate plant medicines for individuals. Data were collected from a theoretical sample of 17 North American WHM practitioners contributing a total of 39 interviews and analyzed using the constant comparison method. The process of Personalizing Western Herbal Medicine consists of five steps with a decision-making subprocess of five steps. The core concept of Weaving a Tapestry of Right Relationships explains what practitioners do when Personalizing Western Herbal Medicine. Right relationship is emergent coherence and accounts for wholeness as the relationship of the parts and weaves through connecting each step in Personalizing Western Herbal Medicine. Creating Concordance describes right relationship between the person and the herbal medicine. Concordance is achieved when an herbal medicine fits the whole person and there is a personal shift or restoration of dynamic equilibrium.

>Magister Scientiae - MSc / Hypertension is a common chronic health problem worldwide due to contributing factors such as obesity, physical inactivity, unhealthy diet and changes in lifestyle. The standard of care for hypertension in South Africa is prescription medication, as well as a stepwise programme; this treatment approach is for the treatment of hypertension according to severity using diuretics, beta-blockers, vasodilators in a stepwise progressive manner. In South Africa,traditional herbal medicines have been used to treat many ailments especially hypertension.Garlic and African olive has been reported as herbal medicines that have anti-hypertensive properties and may be used to control hypertension, either individually or in combination.The objective of this study is to 1) prevalence of these traditional herbal medicines will be investigated and 2) determine the prevalence of garlic and/ or African olive use among hypertensive patients lieu of/or in combination with prescription medication. The study design was cross-sectional, comprising of two phases. Phase one was the administration of questionnaires concerning the participants‘ demographics, medical/clinical history, chronic illness and traditional herbal treatment. One hundred and eighty participants from Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiological study (PURE) cohort were administered questionnaires. Of the 180 participants, 139 indicated that they are hypertensive, 30 hypertensive participants were selected to participate in the in-depth interviews. Phase two was divided into two parts which were detailed interviews including in-depth interviews and a focus group discussion. The focus group discussion was conducted with a convenience sample of 10 hypertensive patients who were available on the day of data collection. The questionnaire data was analysed with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and the interviews and focus group discussion was analysed using thematic content analysis.The results show that the participants with hypertension who are on prescription medication are also using traditional herbs, garlic and African olive as part of a dualistic health care treatment for their hypertension. The use of garlic is more prevalent than the use of African olive, as African olive was not well known among the participants.The results will facilitate in the acknowledgment of traditional herbal medicine use for hypertension, as either a home remedy for (other) chronic conditions or treatment in combination with prescription medication. It also highlights the necessity to educate participants and healthcare providers in the use of traditional herbal medicine. Furthermore, healthcare workers needs to be trained about THM and should also be obligated to ask about traditional herbal medicine among their patients.

Health can be described as both a product and a process of life, and is necessary for human wellbeing, overall quality of life and productivity. While health is generally desirable, many factors affect health and health outcomes of individuals and populations the world over. Virtually all individuals will be faced with one health problem or another during their lifetime, that requires some form of health care intervention. Whatever their reasons for seeking care, all health care consumers share a common interest – a desire to get better. In a pluralistic health care environment where different avenues exist for seeking and receiving health care, differential choice of care may be influenced by sociodemographic and related factors. To the extent that the available avenues for seeking and receiving health care do not offer the same opportunities for improving health, significantly different health outcomes may be realized for comparable conditions for which different types and volume of health care are sought and received. Understanding the factors that influence health-seeking behaviors among various populations may therefore, be an important first step in designing intervention programs that nudge health consumers toward better health-seeking behaviors with the goal to improving health and health outcomes among these populations. The purpose of this research was to develop a research instrument for studying health-seeking behaviors based on the Health Belief Model, and to use the instrument to study the factors that influence/predict health-seeking behaviors among Ghanaians. Using a convenience sample of 504 participants recruited from the Greater Accra, Ashanti, Volta and Northern Regions, analyses of the data showed that different sociodemographic characteristics such as age group, gender and health insurance status as well as selected modified constructs of the Health Belief Model such as Perceived Barriers to mainstream care, variously and collectively influence health-seeking behaviors at government and private health facilities, self-medication with herbal and pharmaceutical drugs, faith healing and care from traditional/herbal practitioners. Based on the findings of this study, the author concludes that health-seeking behaviors in Ghana are influenced by a multiplicity of factors including sociodemographic characteristics. Subsequently, recommendations for a more extensive study with a complementary qualitative enquiry are made in order to gain a more wholistic insight of the drivers of health-seeking behaviors in Ghana.

Au cours des trente dernières années, avec la multiplication des effets secondaires des médicaments synthétiques, les médicaments traditionnels à base de plantes ont été redécouverts. Cette catégorie de médicaments est définie juridiquement par la directive communautaire 2004/24/CE. Le but de cette recherche est, d’une part, de comparer les textes sino-Européens sur le contrôle de la qualité des matières premières végétales dans les domaines de la production et du commerce international ; d’autre part, de comparer les textes sino-Européens sur le contrôle de la qualité, de la sécurité et de l’efficacité des médicaments traditionnels à base de plantes, en tant que produits finis. Toutes les réglementations communautaires et chinoises, concernant les médicaments traditionnels à base de plantes, ont pour objectif essentiel la sauvegarde de la santé publique ; la qualité, la sécurité et l’efficacité de ces médicaments particuliers sont strictement contrôlées dans ces deux régions du monde. Toutefois, il est important de noter que ces deux systèmes juridiques présentent des nombreuses divergences tenant à l’histoire et à la culture dans le secteur des médicaments traditionnels à base de plantes. L’harmonisation des textes sino-Européens sur les médicaments traditionnels à base de plantes soulève un problème particulièrement complexe. / In the recent three decades, with the increase of side effects of synthetic drugs, attention to traditional herbal medicines has been paid again and given a clear legal definition by the directive 2004/24/EC. In this thesis, we are making a comparative study: first on the Chinese-European texts on the quality control of vegetal raw material in the fields of production and international trade, then on the Chinese-European on the quality control, the security and effectiveness of traditional herbes-Made medicine as products. Although Chinese and European tradition herbal medicine regulations all mainly aim at protecting public health, and strictly controlling the quality, safety and efficacy of such medicines, there are big difference for traditional herbal medicine regulations between China and the EU due to difference of the history, culture and traditions in the pharmaceutical industry and the legal system. For a long period of time, coordination between the two will remain difficult.