title: Traditional healing practices among American Muslims: perceptions of community leaders in southeast Michigan.
abstract: Despite growing numbers of American Muslims, little empirical work exists on their use of traditional healing practices. We explored the types of traditional healing practices used by American Muslims in southeast Michigan. Twelve semi-structured interviews with American Muslim community leaders identified through a community-academic steering committee were conducted. Using a framework coding structure, a multidisciplinary investigative team identified themes describing traditional healing practices. Traditional healing practices can be categorized into three domains: Islamic religious text based practices, Islamic worship practices, and folk healing practices. Each domain may further contain therapies such as spiritual healing, medicinal herbs, mind body therapy, and dietary prescriptions. Traditional healing practices are utilized in three capacities of care: primary, secondary, and integrative. Our findings demonstrate that American Muslims actively utilize traditional healing practices. Healthcare practitioners caring for this population should be aware of the potential influence of these practices on health behaviors.
authors: Department of Family Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48104, USA. samis@med.umich.edu
authors: Sara
authors: S
authors: Alrawi
authors: Michael D
authors: MD
authors: Fetters
authors: Amal
authors: A
authors: Killawi
authors: Adnan
authors: A
authors: Hammad
authors: Aasim
authors: A
authors: Padela
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000529:Complementary Therapies; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007514:Islam; D007857:Leadership; D008297:Male; D008519:Medicine, Traditional / Q000379:methods*; D008824:Michigan; D008875:Middle Aged; D010465:Perception; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D029181:Spirituality; D013637:Tape Recording