Community-Based Interventions to Integrate Traditional Health Practices in South African Medical Care

This paper assessed the effect of community-based interventions on a sample of South African first year medical students' attitudes towards Traditional Medicines (TMs) and their beliefs in traditional healers (THs), and gathered their views on THs' roles. A mixed method approach using concurrent triangulation design was adopted. All (n=324) students in three consecutive years (2010: n=98; 2011: n=108; 2012: n=118) constituted the sample. Before interventions, only fifty percent had positive attitudes towards TMs and there was no significant difference between their attitudes toward TMs and beliefs in THs. There was no significant correlation between Age/gender/population/religion/province with their attitudes or beliefs. After interventions, the change in attitudes was +78 (p < 0.0001), +107 (p