Health seeking by people living with non-communicable diseases in a pluralistic health system: the role of informal healthcare providers

Table 1 Participant categories

Method	Type & number of participants	Total participants
Key Informant Interviews	• 3 community chiefs (1 from each research site) • 9 informal healthcare providers (3 from each community, comprising drug peddlers, traditional healers and religious healers) • 3 representatives of traditional healers’ association^a (1 from each community) • 3 formal healthcare providers (1 from each community)	18
Focus Group Discussions	• 6 community chiefs (1 FGD) • 6 formal healthcare workers (1 FGD) • 9 informal healthcare providers (1 FGD)	21
Narrative Interviews	• 4 People living with diabetes (3 females; 1 male) • 5 people living with hypertension (4 females; 1 male) • 6 people living stroke/disability resulting from stroke (3 females; 3 males)	15
Total participants for all methods		54

^aTraditional healers’ association representatives provide leadership roles for their members at community level. At the national level, there is a traditional healers’ association that is recognised by health system policy makers. While they exercise some control over traditional healers, through penalties to those who fail to comply with membership regulations, it is not known how this happens across communities in Freetown

ISSN: 1475-9276