Intention to use traditional medicine among elementary school students

School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta, Indonesia

^* Corresponding author: ariswidayati31@gmail.com ; ariswidayati@umy.ac.id

Abstract

Indonesian adults commonly use traditional medicine. Nevertheless, there is a scarcity of research on the behavioural features of herbal usage among early teens. The objective of this study is to examine the factors associated with the willingness to use traditional medicine among elementary school pupils, employing the conceptual framework of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). This study applied a cross-sectional design to collect quantitative data. The independent variables were attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control, which are the three constructs of TPB. The dependent variable was the intention of using traditional medicine. The participants consisted of 199 children from Wates 4 State Elementary School in Kulon Progo Regency and Ungaran 1 Elementary School in Yogyakarta City, located in D.I. Yogyakarta Province. The schools were purposely chosen. Data was collected using a TPB questionnaire. Chi-Square was employed to analyse the data. Nearly 95.0% of the participants expressed an intention to use traditional medicine. Significant associations (p<0.05) exist between the three TPB constructs and the intention among students at Wates 4 State Elementary School in Kulon Progo Regency and Ungaran 1 State Elementary School in Yogyakarta City, D.I. Yogyakarta.