Abstract:

There has been a significant increase is use of traditional medicine in recent years worldwide, Countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America use traditional medicine to help meet some of their primary health care needs. In Africa up to 80% of the population use traditional medicine for their primary health care. The objective of this study was to determine the knowledge, perception and practices towards traditional medicine utilization among medical student in Mwanza.

Methodology: The descriptive cross sectional study was conducted on June 2014. Two hundred thirty five students participated in the study. Structured Questionnaire were used to collect demographic information and Question assessing different aspect of Traditional medicine. Data were analysed by using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS).

Results: 49.4% of participants had good knowledge on Traditional medicine. Mass media was the main source of information about traditional medicine in both sex. The large proportion of students (71%) believed that traditional medicine included ideas and methods on which modern medicine benefits.

Conclusion: Although the positive attitude towards traditional medicine was found to be high in this study; It is lower than most of the students conducted in different countries so comparative studies in other medical schools in Tanzania may help to provide more definite assessments not only to determine the level of knowledge and the attitudes of medical students on Traditional medicine but also what student think about the integration of traditional medicine courses in medical curriculum.