Prevalence and Correlates of Herbal Medicine Use among Women Seeking Care for Infertility in Freetown, Sierra Leone

Table 2

Association between sociodemographic and health-related factors and herbal medicine use among women seeking fertility care.

Characteristics	Variables	Users	Nonusers	value
Age group	<30 years	27	61	0.098
	≥30 years	34	45
Religion	Christianity	28	52	0.694
	Islam	33	54
Marital status	Single/separated	3	9	0.389
	Married/cohabitate	58	97
Type of marriage	Monogamous	33	68	0.639
	Polygamous	4	6
Change of partner	No	54	98	0.393
	Yes	7	8
Duration of relationship	1–5 yrs	32	71	0.069
	6–10 yrs	23	32
	>10 yrs	6	3
Tribe	Mende	15	29	0.470
	Temne	16	23
	Fullah	2	10
	Others	28	44
Educational status	No formal education	22	16	<0.001
	Primary	16	10
	Secondary	11	25
	Tertiary	12	55
Employment status	Employed	48	83	0.953
	Unemployed	13	23
Monthly income	<1 million Leones	24	16	<0.001
	1–3.5 million Leones	37	90
Partner with child/children from previous relationship	Yes	26	30	0.066
	No	33	71
Household income provider	Self	3	4	0.383
	Partner	20	27
	Both	38	71
	Others	0	4
Duration of infertility	0–24 months	52	100	0.048
	>24 months	9	6
Distance from health facility	<5 km	29	65	0.084
	5–10 km	29	40
	>10 km	3	1
Cause of infertility	Supernatural/curse	2	0	0.132
	Medical	59	106
Presence of health problems	Yes	8	16	0.725
	No	53	90
Presence of other reproductive health conditions other than infertility	Yes	28	29	0.017
	No	33	76
Previously given birth	Yes	37	44	0.017
	No	24	62
Reported emotional torture	Yes	10	12	0.351
	No	51	94
Barrier to accessing conventional fertility care	Yes	34	30	<0.001
	No	27	76
Visit to traditional medicine practitioner	Yes	10	1	<0.001
	No	51	105