We know the secret of your success
Healthcare-seeking behaviour status of members of a country is one of the criteria that determines the level of a country in achieving health goals such as universal health coverage and the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Developmental Goals. Despite the importance associated with health-seeking behaviour, it is very sad that only limited studies have been conducted among groups and sub-groups in a population (Latunji & Akinyemi, 2018). As for patients suffering from infectious diseases, any delay in seeking care results in increased transmission of diseases to the members of the family and gradually to the community. The knowledge and understanding of healthcare-seeking behaviour are very essential to the government and health practitioners, to build better and improved health systems and implement health promotion strategies (Zhang et al., 2020; Poortaghi et al., 2015).
Health seeking behaviour has been described as the behaviour exhibited by individuals who are ill or sick-term behaviour (Latunji & Akinyemi, 2018). According to Zhang et al., health-seeking behaviour has been defined as any action taken by humans that considered themselves to have some health challenges or being ill to achieve appropriate care health practitioners, to build better and improved health systems and implement health promotion strategies (Zhang et al., 2020). Health behaviour has been defined as any activity undertaken by an individual to achieve or maintain good health, prevent ill-health conditions, and manage any state from the departure from the normal state of health (Latunji & Akinyemi, 2018).
To analyse health-seeking behaviour, the health-seeking Behaviour model plays an important role. The health belief model proposes that a health behaviour exhibited by an individual is usually influenced by two main factors (Oberoi et al., 2016): i. The individual perception of the severity of the disease (that is the negative outcomes associated with the disease); ii. The perception of the effectiveness of the preventive behaviour (that is when the individual understands that his behaviour to prevent a certain disease that may increase financial burden, time, and effort). This is true because, when a life-threatening health message is passed, individuals will try to adjust to an appropriate health behaviour to protect themselves from such risks (Mitchell et al., 2017; Oberoi et al., 2016).
One of the factors influencing health-seeking behaviour is health insurance in a nation. The level of enrolment in health insurance is very important in the health financing function of a health system. This is so because the level of user fees or out of pocket fees in a nation translates to the health-seeking behaviour in a particular setting. For example, in developing countries where out of pocket payment is rampant, it affects the individual’s access to healthcare facilities and thereby affects their health-seeking behaviour. So, increased enrolment and availability of health insurance will adequately promote the health-seeking behaviour of sick persons and the utilization of health services (Kuuire et al., 2016).
Socioeconomic factors have also been known to affect health-seeking behaviour. Poor individuals have been observed not to likely utilize health services due to inequalities existing between the poor and the rich (Kuuire et al., 2016). One's level of education is another determining factor affecting health-seeking behaviour. One study saw that appropriate health-seeking behaviour was found to be higher among civil servants. Concerning the position level of the civil servants, those with higher cadre and higher educational level status was compared to those with lower education and lower cadre, evidence showed that the individuals with higher cadre have more appropriate health-seeking behaviour than those with lower educational level (Latunji & Akinyemi, 2018).
One study on health-seeking behaviour among adolescents saw that only one-quarter of the participants visited a health facility for over six months. Also, it stated that a gap exists between the availability and meeting the required health needs of young ones (Otwombe et al., 2015). Another study showed that the major factors affecting adolescents and adult healthcare-seeking behaviour were associated with rude and other negative attitudes of healthcare workers and the cost of healthcare (Seidu, 2015). Other factors include long-waiting times and distant healthcare facilities (in rural settings) are all contributory factors to inappropriate healthcare-seeking behaviours Seidu, 2015). Therefore, this present study will investigate the prevalent factors affecting healthcare-seeking behaviours among adolescents and young adults in a developing country.
Inappropriate healthcare-seeking behaviour is a great problem of public health concern. This is because any delay in seeking healthcare among patients suffering from infectious diseases results in increases the level of disease transmission of the disease to the members of his family and gradually to the community. Also, healthcare-seeking behaviour is one of the criteria that determines the level of a country in achieving health goals such as universal health coverage and the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Developmental Goals. The knowledge and understanding of healthcare-seeking behaviour are very essential to the government and health practitioners to improve health systems and implement health promotion strategies (Zhang et al., 2020; Poortaghi et al., 2015). Therefore, it is important to investigate the prevalent factors affecting healthcare-seeking behaviours among adolescents and young adults in a developing country.
This study on healthcare-seeking behaviour is very important because it will help to measure the level and quality of health care delivery and accessibility to healthcare service in a country. This will enable policymakers and healthcare practitioners to see the need to promote an effective and efficient approach in actualizing health goals, such as universal health coverage and achieving United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The study will also enable individuals who are sick to immediately seek healthcare as this will help in minimizing disease transmission from one person to another. There are no or limited studies on the prevalent young adults and adolescents’ healthcare-seeking behaviour in developing nations, which this present study will aim to achieve.
This will be a cross-sectional study among adolescents and young adults in some selected communities in a developing country. A pretested structured questionnaire will be used to collect all relevant information using simple random sampling.
Collected data from the questionnaire will be entered into SPSS version 20 for analysis. Adjusted odds ratios (OR) with a 95% confidence interval will be used to assess statistically significant variables (p<0.05).
The risk assessment conducted for this project is provided in the table below:
Table 1: Risk assessment
Risk
Impact
Mitigation Plan
Inability to meet the deadline
Low
Get an extension from the supervisor in due time
Inability to get required process inputs, skill, and manpower
Moderate
Refer to municipalities and research institutes for help
Inability to properly develop the process set up
High
Refer to your supervisor for help
Insufficient data
Refer to journals and textbooks for help
Table 2: Project Plan
Task Name
Start Date
End Date
Duration (Days)
Initial Research
15/01/2022
29/01/2022
14
Proposal
06/02/2022
21
Introduction Chapter
18/03/2022
23/03/2022
5
Literature Review Chapter
20/04/2022
24
Methodology Chapter
02/05/2022
12
Presentation 1
02/07/2022
10/07/2022
8
Analysis
24/07/2022
Evaluation of Gotten Results
01/08/2022
7
Discussion Chapter
11/08/2022
10
Evaluation Chapter
16/08/2022
Conclusion Chapter
18/08/2022
2
Project Management Chapter
20/08/2022
Abstract and Report compilation
22/08/2022
Report Proofreading
01/09/2022
Presentation 2
11/09/2022
REFERENCES
Kuuire, V. Z., Bisung, E., Rishworth, A., Dixon, J., & Luginaah, I. (2016). Health-seeking behaviour during times of illness: A study among adults in a resource-poor setting in Ghana. Journal of Public Health (United Kingdom), 38(4), e545–e553. https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdv176
Latunji, O. O., & Akinyemi, O. O. (2018). Factors Influencing Health-Seeking Behaviour Among Civil Servants in Ibadan, Nigeria. Ann Ibd. Pg. Med, 16, 52-60
Mitchell, C., McMillan, B., & Hagan, T. (2017). Mental health help-seeking behaviours in young adults. In British Journal of General Practice (Vol. 67, Issue 654, pp. 8–9). Royal College of General Practitioners. https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp17X688453
Otwombe, K., Dietrich, J., Laher, F., Hornschuh, S., Nkala, B., Chimoyi, L., Kaida, A., Gray, G. E., & Miller, C. L. (2015). Health-seeking behaviours by gender among adolescents in Soweto, South Africa. Global Health Action, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.3402/gha.v8.25670
Seidu, A.-A. (2015). Healthcare Seeking Behaviour Among Adolescents in Basic Schools in Yamoransa Sexual and Reproductive Health of Adolescents in Africa View project. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.21709.18404
Zhang, Q., Feng, S., Wong, I. O. L., Ip, D. K. M., Cowling, B. J., & Lau, E. H. Y. (2020). A population-based study on healthcare-seeking behaviour of persons with symptoms of respiratory and gastrointestinal-related infections in Hong Kong. BMC Public Health, 20(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-08555-2
Last updated: Feb 11, 2022 10:59 AM
Your one-stop website for academic resources, tutoring, writing, editing, study abroad application, cv writing & proofreading needs.
