Herbal medicine use among Moroccan type 2 diabetes patients in the Beni Mellal-Khenifra region

Objective: Accumulating data pointing to the growing use of herbal medicine (HM) among diabetic patients as a complementary treatment. This study aimed to investigate the use of HM among some Moroccan type 2 diabetes patients in the Beni Mellal-Khenifra region, and then to identify the plants used, motivations, source of knowledge, and satisfaction with their use. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted from January to May 2017, including 1021 diabetes patients. Data on socio-demographic, diabetes-related characteristics, and HM use were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire, and predictors of HM use were checked using multivariate logistic regression analysis. Results: Overall, 34.8 % of participants reported using HM, and this use was significantly associated with female sex, urban residency, long duration of diabetes, and receiving oral antidiabetics alone or with insulin. Sixty-three species of plants belonging to 32 families were reported by participants, and the most frequent species used wereTrigonella foenum-graecum L. and Olea europaea L. The main motivation for using HM was belief in its efficacy (73.24 %). The decision to use HM was mainly based on the recommendations of other patients (56 %), and the majority of the users were satisfied (81 %). Conclusion: One-third of the participants used medicinal plants, and predictors of their use appeared to be consistent with previous findings in Morocco. However, the consumption level was relatively low, which could reflect a change in medication habits favoring the use of pharmaceutical rather than traditional medicines. Finally, HM seemed to be used more for prevention than for treatment. In this sense, further investigations to assess the impact of HM on the biological and clinical parameters of diabetes and patient quality of life are important.

Automated summary

The study investigated the use of herbal medicine among Moroccan type 2 diabetes patients and found that approximately one-third of participants used medicinal plants, mainly due to belief in their efficacy, with the majority of users expressing satisfaction. Predictors of herbal medicine use appeared consistent with previous findings in Morocco.