Kwale Kenya - 1 | P a g e STUDY REPORT An Exploration Study on the Use of Diet and Home Remedies in the Management of Cardiovascular Diseases

Objective: To do a community based observational study to establish if the Digo and the Duruma, communities of Kwale utilize diets and home remedies in prevention and the management of CVDs.

Design: An observational study design was used. The study areas were Kinango, Msambweni and Matuga sub-counties in Kwale County. Structured interviews using questionnaires among 63 participants and 21 Focus group discussions (FGDs). 21 villages across the three sub-counties were randomly selected, criterion base selection of respondents identified through snowball sampling. Data was collected using questionnaires, observation and tape recording for FGDs and analyzed using SPSS software and qualitative analysis of transcripts of FGDs

Results: The two communities have a wide array of traditional home remedies and diets used in the management of CVDs and also remedies for other diseases. Traditional Home remedies were more popular than the traditional diets. Most of the remedies did not have elaborate prescriptions although those who used them claimed that they work. Generally, there was no specific remedies for specific CVDs except only in few cases. The indicators they use to judge the efficacy of the remedies were to a larger extent unmeasurable.

Conclusions: The Digo and the Duruma have their own traditional diets and home remedies they use to manage CVDS. Being an explorative study, quantitative studies need to be done to establish the extent to which the diets and home remedies are utilized in the two communities, establish the correct dosages and come up with measurable indicators for judging the efficacy of these remedies and give distinction between remedies that prevent and those that manage or treat CVDs