Seeking care from a traditional healer after injury in Sudan: an exploratory cross-sectional analysis

Abstract

Background Seeking care from traditional healers for injury is a common practice in low- and middle-income countries, including Sudan. As little is known about specific patterns of the practice in the country, we aimed to investigate associated factors and the role of professional injury care availability. Methods We used Sudan Household Health Survey 2010 data from a national stratified multistage cluster sample of 15 000 households. A multivariable Poisson regression (PR) model with robust variance was used to test potential associations of receiving care from a traditional healer in the first week after injury with age, gender, urban/rural residence, wealth index, educational attainment, cause of injury, time of injury occurrence and state-level injury-care bed density. Results Of 1432 injured participants who sought some form of healthcare, 38% received care from a traditional healer. A significant negative association was found with educational attainment, age and wealth. The association between injury-care bed density and receiving care from a traditional healer was consistently evident only when the injury was caused by a road traffic accident (PR = 0.90, 95% CI 0.85 to 0.96). Conclusions Merely increasing the affordability or availability of injury care facilities may not impact reliance on traditional healers for all causes of injury. Therefore, injury care policies need to consider the role of traditional healers as part of the healthcare system.

Complications and Avoidance of the Complications Associated with Management of Abdominal Trauma

“…Liver serves as a hub of metabolic processes of which life depends. Eight main metabolic processes taking place in the liver are: (1) bile formation and excretion, (2) carbohydrate metabolism, (3) protein metabolism, (4) fat metabolism, (5) blood coagulation, (6) vitamin metabolism, (7) detoxification and (8) phagocytosis and immunity. It is very unlikely for human being to survive without liver.…”

“…This is commonly seen in developing countries. In developing countries there are still remarkable dual management approaches for traumatic patients [7]. Some traumatic abdominal patients are first seen by traditional healers.…”