Indigenous knowledge and the impact of lifestyle criteria on women's use of medicinal plants for various diseases

Women are very fond of medicinal plants and use them for purposes such as treatment and prevention of various diseases, cooking, etc. Lifestyle and its modification can have a great effect in reducing mental and physical diseases. The present study was designed and implemented for the first time with the aim of evaluating indigenous knowledge and the impact of lifestyle criteria on women's use of medicinal plants for various diseases in District 10 of Tehran. The present study was an applied study and the survey method was analytical-cross-sectional. The main research tool was researcher-made and structured questionnaires with 9 main questions. The statistical population of women living in the 10th district of Tehran. The content validity of the tool was carried out by experts. Cronbach's alpha method was used for reliability, which was confirmed as 0.966. Statistical analysis of data was done by SPSS 22. The results showed that women living in the 10th district of Tehran were interested in consuming medicinal plants during illness or to prevent it. A lot of findings indicated that the highest amount of women use Crocus sativus L. saffron plant with an average of 4.05 and to treat colds with an average of 2.81 and in the field of women's diseases for excessive pain during menstruation with the average was 1.56. The findings of the one-sample T-test at the 99% confidence level indicated that women use medicinal plants in small amounts in all general diseases related to women. Also, the analysis of the relationship between the different components of Islamic lifestyle and the use of medicinal plants using a one-sample T-test showed that, except for the doctor's beliefs and people's beliefs, all the items had an effective role in the tendency to use medicinal plants. Therefore, it seems that women are interested in using medicinal plants to treat common diseases, and as an Iranian Muslim woman, they try to use medicinal plants in accordance with the various criteria of Islamic lifestyle.