Self-Medication Practices in North Celebes: Trust, Interaction and Cultural Beliefs

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-110-4_5How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Gout arthritis; Minahasa; PAR Drugs; Self-medication

Abstract

During the globalization era, the popularity of self-medication is promoted by reasonable costs and the authority to make convenient self-decisions. This practice is popular in Indonesia. However, the practice constantly raises several risks, such as dependence or drug abuse, failure drug interactions, side effects until death. Minahasa community in Woloan 1, Tomohon has a strong self-medication practice, called “obat PAR” which means a combination of dexamethasone, amoxicillin, allopurinol, and a vitamin that has the function to treat gout. Interestingly, obat par still existed in the community caused by the success of obat par in dealing with gouty arthritis and the spreading of information. The aim of this study was to explore information accessibility on par treatment in gouty arthritis patients in Woloan 1, Tomohon. Qualitative ethnographic methods were used to explore phenomena based on the point of view of the indigenous people. The chosen location is selected because it is still closely related to culture and is dominated by indigenous Minahasa people. Data collection was done by September 2020 to January 2021 with seven participants who met the criteria, namely a retired nurse and six community leaders or traditional elders. The results revealed that the effectiveness of information on obat par was driven by a strong relationship between a traditional elder and a retired nurse. This retired nurse mixes several drugs and sells them secretly without any information about what kind of drugs. The spreading of information was carried out through thanksgiving events, various worship services, baptisms, and family gatherings. The strong relationship between obat par and community made them trust obat par more than physician prescription drugs. Even the Tomohon people call par as obat dewa (medicine that comes from God) because it has the power to cure people and has a fast effect.

Copyright

© 2023 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Mentari Charen Melaty Kolondam
AU  - Rosiana Eva Rayanti
AU  - Theresia Pratiwi Elingsetyo Sanubari
PY  - 2023
DA  - 2023/11/07
TI  - Self-Medication Practices in North Celebes: Trust, Interaction and Cultural Beliefs
BT  - Proceedings of the 4th Green Development International Conference (GDIC 2022)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 28
EP  - 40
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-110-4_5
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-110-4_5
ID  - Kolondam2023
ER  -