A Study on The Variation of Medicinal Plants Used for Controlling Blood Sugar and Causes of Self - Medication by Patients Referred to Bandarabbas Diabetic Center

Currently, the tendency toward using alternative and traditional medications for controlling and reducing blood sugar is increasing. The purpose of this study was to determine variation of medicinal plants used to control blood sugar and causes of self medication with them in diabetic patients referred to diabetic center in Bandar Abbas. In this descriptive analytic study 250 patients were selected with convenience sampling. The questionnaire was proved to be valid with content validity and reliable with Cronbach's alpha. For data analysis, descriptive statistics and Kendal's and Pearson's regression tests were applied. Findings indicated that 54.7% of patients used medicinal plants, 30% of them used Teucrium polium, 17% used the combined Myrtle and Teucrium polium, 9% used Myrtle and 8% used Citrullus colocynthis. The main causes of self treatment were the belief in medicinal plants (93%), advice by relatives (88%) and previous experiment using of herbal medicine by relatives (83%). 79.1% of patients who used it, expressed that medicinal plants are effective. There was a significant relationship between the number of years affected by diabetes mellitus and self medication (P=0.001). Conculsion: It is recommended that correct information should be presented to the patients in educational classes on diabetic center to control the use of medicinal plants and to increase medical supervision.