RELATIONSHIP OF INFORMATION ACCESSIBILITY, KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION, MANAGEMENT AND TRANSFER SYSTEM AMONG TRADITIONAL HERBAL MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS IN SOUTH - WEST, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study investigates the relationship of information accessibility, knowledge acquisition, management and transfer system among traditional herbal medical practitioners in South-west, Nigeria. It was imperative to go into the study because the orthodox medicine has its limitations on human health, while traditional herbal medicine is gaining popularity as a result of the fact that its utilisation has little or no side-effects. The problem of accessing information, acquiring knowledge, managing such knowledge and transferring it has been hindering the universal acceptance and utilisation of such traditional herbal medicines. Among the specific objectives of the study is to determine the channels of information by traditional herbal medical practitioners, identify sources of knowledge acquisition by traditional herbal medical practitioners, find out how knowledge acquired by the traditional herbal medical practitioners is transferred and to ascertain the management strategies adopted by traditional herbal medical practitioners in South-West Nigeria. Hence, this study attempts to shed light on the interwoven nature of these variables for overall efficiency and effectiveness of the entire health care system in Nigeria. The study population was made up of 4,408 traditional herbal medical practitioners in the neighbouring states that constituted the south-west geo-political zone of Nigeria. Multi-stage procedure, random and stratified sampling techniques were used for the study. Firstly, random purposive sampling technique was employed to select the target population comprising Ekiti, Osun and Oyo states. Thereafter, by means of stratified sampling technique, 539 traditional herbal medical practitioners were selected from the target population as the sample for the study. Approximately equal proportion of the traditional herbal medical practitioners was selected from the three states. The research instruments are two: the first is a structured questionnaire titled: “Information accessibility, knowledge acquisition, and management transfer system among traditional herbal medical practitioners questionnaire”. The second instrument is an unstructured interview that sought the respondent‟s answers to questions on traditional herbal medicine. The validity of the results was ensured through the supervisors and other experts in the field of library and information science / Technology, while the reliability was ascertained by means of spilt-half statistical method. The data were analysed by means of frequency counts, percentages, mean, standard deviation and Pearson product moment correlation coefficient. The results indicate that, there is significant relationship between: (a)information accessibility and knowledge transfer system (r = 0.503); (b) knowledge acquisition and knowledge transfer system (r =0.280); (c) information accessibility and knowledge system (r = 0. 722) among the traditional herbal medical practitioners in South-west, Nigeria. The study concluded that traditional herbal medical practitioners in South West Nigeria accessed and sourced information on traditional herbal medicines through oral transmission, by attending association meetings and consulting community leaders and parents or extended relations. It was recommended that the traditional herbal medical practitioners should make use of the Internet, social media, electronic media and library facilities to access information, acquire knowledge, as well as manage and transfer such information and knowledge.