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Table 1 Demographic and other characteristics of 19 traditional healers in Vanuatu

From: Traditional healers and the potential for collaboration with the national tuberculosis programme in Vanuatu: results from a mixed methods study

Characteristic§

Number

Percentage

Sex (n = 19)

  

  Male

18

95

Age group (n = 19)

  

  18-29 years

1

5

  30-39 years

1

5

  40-49 years

3

16

  50-59 years

3

16

  60 years and over

4

21

  Age group not recorded

7

37

Location (n = 19)

  

  Epi

3

16

  Port Vila

5

16

  Santo

4

21

  Tanna

7

37

Name of healer (n = 17)

  

  Kleva*

1

6

  Kastom^ dokta # (or dokta)

7

41

  Healer

1

6

  Other

8

47

Length of time as healer (n = 15)

  

  1-4 years

2

13

  5-9 years

3

20

  10-19 years

4

27

  20 years of more

6

40

How learned to be a healer (n = 19)

  

  Ancestors

1

5

  Grandparents

3

16

  Parents

4

21

  Spirit or God

5

26

  Other

6

32

Number of people in community (n = 15)

  

  51-100

4

27

  101-200

2

13

  200 or more

9

60

Number of people treated in a year (n = 12)

  

  Less than 50

1

8

  51-100

2

17

  101-200

2

17

  201 or more

7

58

  1. §n = number of valid responses. All percentages were calculated as a proportion of the number of valid responses, which are indicated in brackets.
  2. *Kleva: Bislama word for a traditional healer or traditional medical practitioner.
  3. ^Kastom: The word that people in Vanuatu use to characterise their own knowledge and practice in distinction to everything they identify as having come from outside their place.
  4. # Dokta: Bislama translation of the word “doctor”. Kastom dokta refers to a traditional healer in Vanuatu.