Utilisation of traditional healers among older people living with HIV in South Africa: a WHO SAGE well-being of older people study

Background Within the African region, there are an estimated 8 million people living with HIV (PLHIV) in South Africa.

Seeking healthcare services from traditional healers (TH) is one of the alternative and complementary approaches to HIV/AIDS treatment.

Identifying the associated factors of TH utilisation among older PLHIV is crucial in developing healthcare interventions that cater to the unique needs of this vulnerable group.

This study investigated the factors associated with TH utilisation among older PLHIV.

Methods We studied 516 older PLHIV using data from the WHO SAGE Well-Being of Older People Study (2011–2013).

Chi-square, bivariate and multivariate logistic regression were computed in STATA Version 14.

The results were presented with both crude and adjusted odds ratio (AOR) and at 95% confidence interval (CI).

Results Of the 516 participants, 15.89% utilised TH.

The major reason for TH utilisation among older PLHIV was the perception of receiving better healthcare services from TH (51.2%) and the flexibility to pay with goods instead of money (14.6%).

The factors associated with TH utilisation were age [AOR = 0.05; CI  0.01, 0.37], being hypertensive [AOR = 2.07; CI  1.04, 4.11], and having more than four servings of fruits [AOR = 10.64; CI  2.95, 38.34].

TH utilisation was significantly lower among those who visited the clinic once or twice [AOR = 0.17; CI  0.05, 0.63], three to six times [AOR = 0.16; CI  0.05, 0.56], and more than 6 times [AOR = 0.09; CI  0.03, 0.34] compared to those who had no clinic visits.

Conclusion In conclusion, a low proportion of TH utilisation was reported among older PLHIV in South Africa.

TH utilisation is associated with age, hypertension status, frequency of clinic visits and fruit servings consumed.

Our study suggests that being hypertensive was a motivating factor for older PLHIV to utilise TH.

Therefore, it is imperative for the South African health department to integrate the services of TH into the mainstream health system to manage non-communicable diseases, particularly hypertension, among older PLHIV.