Willingness to Acquire, Share Knowledge and Prescribe Forest Bathing by Health Professionals in Nigeria

Abstract

Forest bathing (FB) as a medicine is gaining popularity across the globe but little is known about this medicine in Nigeria. Health professionals (HPs) are central to the usage of this medicine through their communications and prescriptions. Therefore, we investigated HPs willingness to acquire, share knowledge and prescribe FB in Nigeria. Cross-sectional data from the 371 HPs (Doctors, n = 215; Nurses, n = 103; Pharmacists, n = 53) from teaching and military hospitals in Port Harcourt were analyzed. About half (49.9%) of HPs were aware of the importance of forest, mostly as a source of drugs/herbs. However, only 16.4% of HPs were aware of FB of which just 4.6% had prescribed it to patients. Online internet search and seminars/conferences were dominant approaches for the acquisition and sharing of knowledge, respectively. While multinomial logistic regression results indicated age as a significant factor influencing the willingness of HPs to acquire knowledge about FB, years of experience were found as a significant factor predicting the willingness of HPs to share knowledge about FB. Gender specificity analyses indicated female HPs more willing to prescribe FB than male counterparts. The results of this study may significantly improve HPs awareness and their willingness for health communication research/practices of FB as medicine in Nigeria.