Abstract:

Introduction: The use of traditional medicines derived from animals and plants is increasing worldwide. Majority of them are not tested for efficacy and safety, their ingredients are sometimes unknown and the dosage and route of administration are not standardized, they may not be safe for internal organs including kidneys. Acute kidney injury is one of the most life threatening condition that may arise from the use of traditional medicine. This study aims at finding the burden and consequence of tradition medicine use among patient with acute kidney injury in our setting.

Methods: A cross sectional study was done in patients with AKI at Bugando Medical Centre Mwanza Tanzania between September 2020 to December 2020. Standardized semi structured questionnaire were used to gather the information. Analysis was done using Statistical Program SPSS version 20.0 and Chi-square test was used to calculate the statistical significances.

Results: A total of 330 patients with AKI were enrolled in the study, 163(49.4%) were males and 167(50.6%) were females and the median age was 34 years. 33.6% has their AKI due to the use of traditional medicine, The odds of having AKI was strongly predicted by low income (p<0.001), low education level (p<0.001), not having health insurance (p<0.001), unemployment (p<0.001) out of 101 who reported to uses traditional medicine 36.9% reported the reason was social cultural practices and knowledge, 21.5% (n=59) responded to perceived failure of convectional medicines, 21.5% (n=59) high cost of convectional medicines, 7.7%.

Conclusion: The use of traditional medicine is a common practice in our setting, this study demonstrated a high proportion of acute kidney injury in association with traditional medicine usage. There is a need to increase awareness of traditional medicine among our communities and need to regulate the use of these medicines.