ArticleBMC complementary medicine and therapies2025
Ethnozoological scatology: a situational report on the utilisation of animal excrement in traditional medicine in Ghana.
Article in BMC complementary medicine and therapies, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Healing from the wild: an ethnozoological exploration of animal-based medicine in Jhargram, West Bengal, India.Journal of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAnimal excrement although may be considered as a waste product, has since ancient days found use in the management of several physical disorders and sometimes for spiritual or mystical purposes. This study assessed the extent of use and the attitude towards animal excrement in traditional medicine among the Ghanaian public.
methodsData was collected from 399 persons in the Tamale metropolis of the Northern Region of Ghana using a semi-structured questionnaire. Data analysis involved the use of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, Version 26 and the results presented in the form of tables and charts. The multivariate logistic regression model was used to assess predictors. Using a confidence interval of 95%, an association between variables was assumed to be significant when p ≤ 0.05.
resultsWhereas 44 (11.6%) indicated a personal use of animal excrement for traditional medicine, up to 234 (58.6%) knew some other person who had ever used animal excrement as medicine. The majority, 42 (97.7%) of users applied them for therapeutic reasons with only 1 (2.3%) claiming to use them for spiritual or mystical purposes. The top two most cited excrements were from the Dromedary camel (Camelus dromedarius) and the cow (Bos taurus). Statistically significant associations were found between the use of animal excrement for traditional medicine and respondents' ages (p-value < 0.001), religious affiliation (p-value < 0.001), employment status (p-value = 0.018), highest educational attainment (p-value = 0.003) and knowing someone who used animal excrement (p-value < 0.001). The predictors of the use of animal excrement for traditional medicine were age, religious affiliation and knowing a user. The attitude towards the use of animal excrement for traditional medicine was barely average (51.8%) with the worst attitude towards the therapeutic use of human excreta.
conclusionThe use of animal excrement in traditional medicine, especially for therapeutic purposes is practised in Ghana. The predictors of using animal excrement for traditional medicine were age, religious affiliation and knowing a user but the general attitude towards animal excrement in traditional medicine can be considered as average.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.