Prevalence, motivation, and associated factors of medicinal herbs consumption in pregnant women from Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office: a systematic review

Abstract

Context

Worldwide access to medication remains a major public health problem that forces pregnant women to self-medicate with several sources, such as medicinal plants. This alternative medicine is increasing in many low- and high-income countries for several reasons.

Objective

This a systematic literature review on the prevalence of herbal use during pregnancy from the World Health Organization (WHO) Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office.

Methods

Cross-sectional studies were searched from January 2011 to June 2021 on PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. We used the Rayyan website to identify the relevant studies by screening the abstracts and titles. These were followed by reading the full texts to identify the final studies to be included. The data were extracted, and the quality of the studies was assessed using the quality appraisal tool.

Results

Of the 33 studies included in this review, 19 were conducted in Iran, 5 in Saudi Arabia, 4 in Palestine, 2 in Egypt, and 1 each in Oman, Iraq, and Jordan; the prevalence of herbal medicine use among pregnant women varied from 19.2% to 90.2%. Several plants were mentioned for pain management during the pregnancy period. The findings suggest family and friends are major motivating sources for the use of herbal medicine.

Conclusions

The wide variety of herbal products used in this study reflects the traditions and geographic diversity of the region. Despite the importance of literature-based data about the use of herbal medicine, it is necessary to obtain knowledge, attitude, and motivation for herbal consumption among pregnant women.

Keywords:

• Frequency
• herbal medicine
• phytotherapy
• plants consumption
• pregnancy

Acknowledgments

The authors would like all the researchers whose works were used in the present study.

Author contribution

AB, LL conceived of the study and compiled the data used in analyses, conducted analyses and drafted the manuscript. FA and YK assisted within the perpetration of the data and provided feedback for this manuscript. MA, MO majorly contributed to the critical discussion and revision of the manuscript and helped. YK supervised the findings of this work. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.