Objective:To compare perceived ill-health and health seeking behavior between two communities affected by the large Nam Theun 2 hydroelectric project in central Lao People’s Democratic Republic(PDR).Methods: Two diff...Objective:To compare perceived ill-health and health seeking behavior between two communities affected by the large Nam Theun 2 hydroelectric project in central Lao People’s Democratic Republic(PDR).Methods: Two different affected areas;Nakai plateaubeing remote,sparcely populated and mountainous,and Xe Bang Fai lowland plains,more densely populated and comparatively affluent were included.Data were obtained from two cross-sectional household-based health and socio-economic surveys.Results:We found pronounced differences in the frequency of self-reported fever,cough,headache and myalgia according to location.On the Nakai plateau,45.1%of the individuals with ill-health report(recall period;2 weeks) went to a local health volunteer compared to only 7.2%in the Xe Bang Fai area(P 【 0.001 ).In Nakai,there were disproportionately more illiterates seeking help from local health volunteers when compared to those who attended at least primary schooling(49.2%versus 17.5%,P 【0.01 ).Self-medication with antimalarials was more common in Xe Bang Fai than on Nakai(32.3%versus 7.0%,P 【 0.001).The mean amount of money spent per health consultation was US $ 1.7 in Nakai and US $ 7.2 in Xe Bang Fai.Conclusion:The observed differences in self-reported ill-health and health seeking behavior among these two Lao communities need to be considered when implementing setting-specific mitigation measures as part of the public health action plan of the Nam Theun 2 hydroelectric project.展开更多
Purpose: We aim to create a model of consumer health information seeking behavior via social media, then to have a better understand of it. After that further efforts should be made to provide targeted recommendations...Purpose: We aim to create a model of consumer health information seeking behavior via social media, then to have a better understand of it. After that further efforts should be made to provide targeted recommendations for media managers to promote health communication via social media. Methods: Our custom model was derived from literature review, empirical research was tested by the use of questionnaire investigation, and then the collected data were analyzed by structural equation model tool SmartPLS. Finally, the custom model was modified according to the experimental results of SmartPLS. Results: A total of 239 (66.39%) of the respondents were female and 121 (33.61%) were male. The maximum of two stages of age were 18 - 29 (70.56%), 30 - 39 (13.89%). Wechat (60.28%), QQ Zone (55.22%), Micro-blog (48.89%) were the most commonly used social media to obtain health information. About 44.72% of respondents used social media to obtain health information multiple times a day. The whole numerical values of AVE, cronbach’s alpha, CR and square roots of AVE were above the benchmarks of themselves and showed great reliability and validity. All the 11 hypotheses had obvious statistical significance, the P-value of eight path coefficients exhibited <0.001, one path coefficient exhibited <0.01 and two path coefficients exhibited <0.05. Conclusions: A suitable model of consumer health information seeking behavior via social media was created and some inner relationships were found. Namely, gratification of health information and its platform had a positive effect on attitudes toward health information seeking behavior. Health information literacy and health status were proved to have a significant influence on attitudes toward health information seeking behavior, subject norms and perceived behavioral control respectively. In addition, attitudes toward the health information seeking behavior, subject norms and perceived behavioral control were proved to positively associate with health information seeking behavior intention.展开更多
Background: Late diagnosis of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection and delayed commencement of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in sub-Saharan Africa is known to contribute to high morbidity and mortality. It is t...Background: Late diagnosis of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection and delayed commencement of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in sub-Saharan Africa is known to contribute to high morbidity and mortality. It is therefore, prudent to develop innovative approaches to ensure early HIV diagnosis because patients with low immunity will usually develop opportunistic infections and seek some remedial action. A treatment and health care seeking behavior survey was carried out in semi-urban communities in Malaba and Busia in Kenya and Uganda to evaluate the treatment and healthcare seeking behavior among patients visiting randomly selected drugstores. Methodology: Random sampling was applied and questionnaires were used to collect information from 165 interviewees who visited drugstores seeking health information, treatment and other health related services. Results: The results indicated that among this group of people, 67% visited drugstores before any other health facility. 72.2% sought treatment for various illnesses and services ranging from headaches, body fever, gastro-intestinal disturbances, family planning pills, sexually transmitted infections and chronic medications. Among the patients interviewed, there were a number of factors that affected treatment choice. These included the distance to the facility as well as the absence of a consultation fee or fee for service. Conclusion: With proper support, drugstores can play a major role in the implementation of health interventions that seek to promote early diagnosis and treatment as well as play a pivotal role in educating the population on disease prevention and management. In Sub-Saharan Africa, drugstores can play a major role in HIV and AIDS interventions where most patients seek medical intervention for opportunistic infection.展开更多
In Uganda, there is still insufficient comprehension of malaria as a lethal disease especially in rural areas despite universal bed-net distribution coverage and effective anti-malarial treatment. <strong>Aim:&l...In Uganda, there is still insufficient comprehension of malaria as a lethal disease especially in rural areas despite universal bed-net distribution coverage and effective anti-malarial treatment. <strong>Aim:</strong> To get evidence-based knowledge to establish the contribution of an individuals’ knowledge from various health communications that could increase their active involvement in health care especially seeking timely appropriate treatment for malaria or suspected malaria. <strong>Method:</strong> A cross-sectional survey using a correlational design was employed on a clustered sample of 380 rural households in 05 sub-counties of Kanungu district. Data were corrected between October 2016-January 2017 using researcher-administered questionnaires, key-informant interviews and focus group discussions. Correlation analysis was done. <strong>Result:</strong> There is a significant positive relationship between knowledge of health communications and treatment-seeking behavior (r = 0.312;<em>p</em> ≤ 0.01). <strong>Conclusion:</strong> Exposure to consistent Behavioral Change Communications messages influences treatment-seeking behaviour. Thus, in malaria-prone communities, it appears that other factors including sufficient targeted persuasive health communication are lacking in influencing personal orientations towards treatment-seeking behaviour. Therefore, proper Health Communications management supplements efforts from other disciplines and players, against malaria in Uganda.展开更多
Background: Medical students have different perception of symptoms and illness. Moreover, medical students reportbarriers to seeking help about their health, and are more likely to seek advice informally from friends...Background: Medical students have different perception of symptoms and illness. Moreover, medical students reportbarriers to seeking help about their health, and are more likely to seek advice informally from friends and/or family. It is important toidentify health seeking behaviors among medical students to be able to modify and interfere accordingly. Objectives: To describe thehealth seeking behavior of medical students in UOS and identify the factors affecting those behaviors. Methods: A cross-sectionalstudy was conducted at the University of Sharjah during the spring semester of the academic year 2012-2013. Self-administeredquestionnaires were distributed to all medical students from all 5 years. Questions were related to physical health seeking behaviorsonly. Data was analyzed using the SPSS21 software. Results: We have found that self-prescription was the most common practicedhealth seeking behavior among 91.8%-96.6% of UOS medical students (CI of 95%) followed by the order ignoring a health problem,seeking immediate care, using the internet, reading more about the problem and self diagnosis & management. All are practiced bymore than 50% of the students. A set of other behaviors was identified as well. Factors affecting these behaviors mainly included:self-care orientation & medical education. Other factors that had a role as well were: gender, stage of studying, having a chronic illnessand lack of knowledge about the health services available. Conclusions: Medical students in the University of Sharjah have a high levelof self-care orientation and accordingly, tend to react to their illness in a variety of ways. The most common of these is self-prescription.Studying medicine is the 2nd major factor that influences their health seeking behaviors. Sufficient guidance about the consequencesassociated with certain behaviors may be required.展开更多
Most studies on beggars in Nigeria have focused exclusively on the social course of indigenous begging activities in Nigerian cities. There exists dearth of knowledge about international migrant beggars and their heal...Most studies on beggars in Nigeria have focused exclusively on the social course of indigenous begging activities in Nigerian cities. There exists dearth of knowledge about international migrant beggars and their health-seeking behavior in Ibadan Southwestern Nigeria. A cross sectional survey data were collected through purposive sampling technique among a total of 250 international migrant beggars in six locations in Ibadan. Results showed that 56% of respondents were female, few had formal education, 85.6% were married, and 94.8% were Muslim. Respondents migrated from Niger (83.6%), Chad (11.2%), Mali (4.0%) and Benin (1.2%). None had a legal residence permit. Respondents’ mean residence duration in Nigeria was 8.5 years. Malaria was common to beggars both in their home country and in Nigeria. Treatment was received from patent medicine vendors by 51.2% respondents. Advice for appropriate treatment for illness was received from family members by 44.4% migrant beggars. Sex and country of beggars have a direct relationship with the treatment seeking (P Financial and legal status of migrant beggars dynamically limited their healthcare choices. Routine health education on hygiene practice and appropriate treatment-seeking should be taken to beggars at their different locations by health workers as means of prevention of the spread of diseases.展开更多
Background: There is generally a lack of good health-seeking practices among health professionals due to a variety of factors, including the intensity of the medical practice itself. Doctors and nurses are perceived t...Background: There is generally a lack of good health-seeking practices among health professionals due to a variety of factors, including the intensity of the medical practice itself. Doctors and nurses are perceived to have a good knowledge of ideal health-seeking behaviors and as such, it is important to determine the level of their awareness and estimate whether this knowledge is put into practice. This study, therefore, aimed to determine the level of awareness and practices of proper health-seeking behavior and to identify the factors responsible for self-medication among doctors and nurses in a tertiary hospital in Nigeria. Methodology: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted between April and may 2018 among 106 doctors and 164 nurses in a tertiary health facility in Ido-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Southwestern Nigeria. A simple random sampling technique by balloting was performed from the list of doctors and nurses in the hospital to select doctors and nurses that participated in the study. A pretested semi-structured self-administered questionnaire was designed and used to collect data. The data were entered into the computer software and analyzed using SPSS version 20. P ≤ 0.05 was taken as significant. Result: Out of 106 doctors and 164 nurses recruited, only 102 doctors and 143 nurses filled the questionnaire completely and returned for analysis. One hundred and four respondents (42.4%) fall within the ages of 31 - 40 years with a male to female ratio of 1:1.23. Awareness of proper health seeking behavior among both doctors and nurses was high among the two groups with no statistically significant difference between them. Twenty-nine (28.0%) doctors compared with thirty-four (23.8%) nurses go for a regular medical check-up with no statistically significant difference between the two groups (p = 0.411). Out of these, 5 (17.2%) doctors and 7 (23.8%) nurses visit at an interval of less than 6 month (p = 0.736). There is a statistically significant difference in the number of doctors (60.8%) compared with nurses (41.3%) that have consulted a doctor in the last one year (p = 0.003). More than half (51.6%) of this consultation among doctors was over the phone whereas 64.4% of such among nurses were via clinic appointment (p = 0.008). More doctors (90.2%) comply with their treatment prescription from physicians compared with nurses (77.6%) (p = 0.010). More nurses compared with doctors self-medicate when ill [Doctor 61.8% (63), Nurses 78.3% (112)] (p = 0.005) and had also self-medicated in the last one year [Doctor 34.3% (35), Nurses 42.7% (61)] (p = 0.187). Decreasing age, decreasing years of experience, increasing working hours, lack of health insurance, fear of confidentiality and lack of satisfaction with health services are factors that significantly increased the likelihood of self-medication among doctors and nurses within the last one year. Conclusion: Awareness of proper health seeking behavior was high but this did not translate into proper health-seeking practices among doctors and nurses. There is apathy for regular medical check-up and self-medication was also high among this group of health workers. Decreasing age and years of experience, increasing working hours, lack of health insurance, fear of confidentiality and lack of satisfaction with health services were factors were identified to significantly increase the likelihood of self-medication.展开更多
AIM To investigate the effects of direct to colonoscopy pathways on information seeking behaviors and anxiety among colonoscopy-na?ve patients.METHODS Colonoscopy-na?ve patients at two tertiary care hospitals complete...AIM To investigate the effects of direct to colonoscopy pathways on information seeking behaviors and anxiety among colonoscopy-na?ve patients.METHODS Colonoscopy-na?ve patients at two tertiary care hospitals completed a survey immediately prior to their scheduled outpatient procedure and before receiving sedation.Survey items included clinical pathway(direct or consult),procedure indication(cancer screening or symptom investigation),telephone and written contact from the physician endoscopist office,information sources,and pre-procedure anxiety.Participants reported pre-procedure anxiety using a 10 point scale anchored by "very relaxed"(1) and "very nervous"(10).At least three months following the procedure,patient medical records were reviewed to determine sedative dose,procedure indications and any adverse events.The primary comparison was between the direct and consult pathways.Given the very different implications,a secondary analysis considering the patient-reported indication for the procedure(symptoms or screening).Effects of pathway(direct vs consult) were compared both within and between the screening and symptom subgroups.RESULTS Of 409 patients who completed the survey,34% followed a direct pathway.Indications for colonoscopy were similar in each group.The majority of the participants were women(58%),married(61%),and internet users(81%).The most important information source was family physicians(Direct) and specialist physicians(Consult).Use of other information sources,including the internet(20% vs 18%) and Direct family and friends(64% vs 53%),was similar in the Direct and Consult groups,respectively.Only 31% of the 81% who were internet users accessed internet health information.Most sought fundamental information such as what a colonoscopy is or why it is done.Pre-procedure anxiety did not differ between care pathways.Those undergoing colonoscopy for symptoms reported greater anxiety [mean 5.3,95%CI: 5.0-5.7(10 point Likert scale)] than those for screening colonoscopy(4.3,95%CI: 3.9-4.7).CONCLUSION Procedure indication(cancer screening or symptom investigation) was more closely associated with information seeking behaviors and pre-procedure anxiety than care pathway.展开更多
The migrants are the important participant and contributor in China’s economic and social construction,but they still have many restrictions on their access to health services.This paper analyzes the differences betw...The migrants are the important participant and contributor in China’s economic and social construction,but they still have many restrictions on their access to health services.This paper analyzes the differences between the migrants and the regis-tered local residents in looking for medical treatment and explores the relationship between health education and medical treatment seeking behavior,so as to find an appropriate way to improve the health level of the migrants.By using the compara-tive survey data of the floating population and registered population in 2017 and establishing the binary Logit model,this paper finds that the health education has a promoting effect on medical treatment seeking behaviors.In terms of the influence mechanism of health education on medical treatment seeking behavior,the mediat-ing effect of social participation factors is stronger in the migrants’group because making new friends and learning about local public health resources through health education is of great significance to the migrants.It is proposed to expand the cov-erage of health education among migrant groups and improve the accessibility of health education.At the same time,public medical and health services should be used as a window to guide the migrants to seek medical treatment in an orderly manner while assisting their social integration.展开更多
基金financial support was granted by the Swiss National Science Foundationthe Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation(projects no.3270B0 - 110020 to SS and PO and no.PPOOB - 102883 to TEE and JU)
文摘Objective:To compare perceived ill-health and health seeking behavior between two communities affected by the large Nam Theun 2 hydroelectric project in central Lao People’s Democratic Republic(PDR).Methods: Two different affected areas;Nakai plateaubeing remote,sparcely populated and mountainous,and Xe Bang Fai lowland plains,more densely populated and comparatively affluent were included.Data were obtained from two cross-sectional household-based health and socio-economic surveys.Results:We found pronounced differences in the frequency of self-reported fever,cough,headache and myalgia according to location.On the Nakai plateau,45.1%of the individuals with ill-health report(recall period;2 weeks) went to a local health volunteer compared to only 7.2%in the Xe Bang Fai area(P 【 0.001 ).In Nakai,there were disproportionately more illiterates seeking help from local health volunteers when compared to those who attended at least primary schooling(49.2%versus 17.5%,P 【0.01 ).Self-medication with antimalarials was more common in Xe Bang Fai than on Nakai(32.3%versus 7.0%,P 【 0.001).The mean amount of money spent per health consultation was US $ 1.7 in Nakai and US $ 7.2 in Xe Bang Fai.Conclusion:The observed differences in self-reported ill-health and health seeking behavior among these two Lao communities need to be considered when implementing setting-specific mitigation measures as part of the public health action plan of the Nam Theun 2 hydroelectric project.
文摘Purpose: We aim to create a model of consumer health information seeking behavior via social media, then to have a better understand of it. After that further efforts should be made to provide targeted recommendations for media managers to promote health communication via social media. Methods: Our custom model was derived from literature review, empirical research was tested by the use of questionnaire investigation, and then the collected data were analyzed by structural equation model tool SmartPLS. Finally, the custom model was modified according to the experimental results of SmartPLS. Results: A total of 239 (66.39%) of the respondents were female and 121 (33.61%) were male. The maximum of two stages of age were 18 - 29 (70.56%), 30 - 39 (13.89%). Wechat (60.28%), QQ Zone (55.22%), Micro-blog (48.89%) were the most commonly used social media to obtain health information. About 44.72% of respondents used social media to obtain health information multiple times a day. The whole numerical values of AVE, cronbach’s alpha, CR and square roots of AVE were above the benchmarks of themselves and showed great reliability and validity. All the 11 hypotheses had obvious statistical significance, the P-value of eight path coefficients exhibited <0.001, one path coefficient exhibited <0.01 and two path coefficients exhibited <0.05. Conclusions: A suitable model of consumer health information seeking behavior via social media was created and some inner relationships were found. Namely, gratification of health information and its platform had a positive effect on attitudes toward health information seeking behavior. Health information literacy and health status were proved to have a significant influence on attitudes toward health information seeking behavior, subject norms and perceived behavioral control respectively. In addition, attitudes toward the health information seeking behavior, subject norms and perceived behavioral control were proved to positively associate with health information seeking behavior intention.
文摘Background: Late diagnosis of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection and delayed commencement of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in sub-Saharan Africa is known to contribute to high morbidity and mortality. It is therefore, prudent to develop innovative approaches to ensure early HIV diagnosis because patients with low immunity will usually develop opportunistic infections and seek some remedial action. A treatment and health care seeking behavior survey was carried out in semi-urban communities in Malaba and Busia in Kenya and Uganda to evaluate the treatment and healthcare seeking behavior among patients visiting randomly selected drugstores. Methodology: Random sampling was applied and questionnaires were used to collect information from 165 interviewees who visited drugstores seeking health information, treatment and other health related services. Results: The results indicated that among this group of people, 67% visited drugstores before any other health facility. 72.2% sought treatment for various illnesses and services ranging from headaches, body fever, gastro-intestinal disturbances, family planning pills, sexually transmitted infections and chronic medications. Among the patients interviewed, there were a number of factors that affected treatment choice. These included the distance to the facility as well as the absence of a consultation fee or fee for service. Conclusion: With proper support, drugstores can play a major role in the implementation of health interventions that seek to promote early diagnosis and treatment as well as play a pivotal role in educating the population on disease prevention and management. In Sub-Saharan Africa, drugstores can play a major role in HIV and AIDS interventions where most patients seek medical intervention for opportunistic infection.
文摘In Uganda, there is still insufficient comprehension of malaria as a lethal disease especially in rural areas despite universal bed-net distribution coverage and effective anti-malarial treatment. <strong>Aim:</strong> To get evidence-based knowledge to establish the contribution of an individuals’ knowledge from various health communications that could increase their active involvement in health care especially seeking timely appropriate treatment for malaria or suspected malaria. <strong>Method:</strong> A cross-sectional survey using a correlational design was employed on a clustered sample of 380 rural households in 05 sub-counties of Kanungu district. Data were corrected between October 2016-January 2017 using researcher-administered questionnaires, key-informant interviews and focus group discussions. Correlation analysis was done. <strong>Result:</strong> There is a significant positive relationship between knowledge of health communications and treatment-seeking behavior (r = 0.312;<em>p</em> ≤ 0.01). <strong>Conclusion:</strong> Exposure to consistent Behavioral Change Communications messages influences treatment-seeking behaviour. Thus, in malaria-prone communities, it appears that other factors including sufficient targeted persuasive health communication are lacking in influencing personal orientations towards treatment-seeking behaviour. Therefore, proper Health Communications management supplements efforts from other disciplines and players, against malaria in Uganda.
文摘Background: Medical students have different perception of symptoms and illness. Moreover, medical students reportbarriers to seeking help about their health, and are more likely to seek advice informally from friends and/or family. It is important toidentify health seeking behaviors among medical students to be able to modify and interfere accordingly. Objectives: To describe thehealth seeking behavior of medical students in UOS and identify the factors affecting those behaviors. Methods: A cross-sectionalstudy was conducted at the University of Sharjah during the spring semester of the academic year 2012-2013. Self-administeredquestionnaires were distributed to all medical students from all 5 years. Questions were related to physical health seeking behaviorsonly. Data was analyzed using the SPSS21 software. Results: We have found that self-prescription was the most common practicedhealth seeking behavior among 91.8%-96.6% of UOS medical students (CI of 95%) followed by the order ignoring a health problem,seeking immediate care, using the internet, reading more about the problem and self diagnosis & management. All are practiced bymore than 50% of the students. A set of other behaviors was identified as well. Factors affecting these behaviors mainly included:self-care orientation & medical education. Other factors that had a role as well were: gender, stage of studying, having a chronic illnessand lack of knowledge about the health services available. Conclusions: Medical students in the University of Sharjah have a high levelof self-care orientation and accordingly, tend to react to their illness in a variety of ways. The most common of these is self-prescription.Studying medicine is the 2nd major factor that influences their health seeking behaviors. Sufficient guidance about the consequencesassociated with certain behaviors may be required.
文摘Most studies on beggars in Nigeria have focused exclusively on the social course of indigenous begging activities in Nigerian cities. There exists dearth of knowledge about international migrant beggars and their health-seeking behavior in Ibadan Southwestern Nigeria. A cross sectional survey data were collected through purposive sampling technique among a total of 250 international migrant beggars in six locations in Ibadan. Results showed that 56% of respondents were female, few had formal education, 85.6% were married, and 94.8% were Muslim. Respondents migrated from Niger (83.6%), Chad (11.2%), Mali (4.0%) and Benin (1.2%). None had a legal residence permit. Respondents’ mean residence duration in Nigeria was 8.5 years. Malaria was common to beggars both in their home country and in Nigeria. Treatment was received from patent medicine vendors by 51.2% respondents. Advice for appropriate treatment for illness was received from family members by 44.4% migrant beggars. Sex and country of beggars have a direct relationship with the treatment seeking (P Financial and legal status of migrant beggars dynamically limited their healthcare choices. Routine health education on hygiene practice and appropriate treatment-seeking should be taken to beggars at their different locations by health workers as means of prevention of the spread of diseases.
文摘Background: There is generally a lack of good health-seeking practices among health professionals due to a variety of factors, including the intensity of the medical practice itself. Doctors and nurses are perceived to have a good knowledge of ideal health-seeking behaviors and as such, it is important to determine the level of their awareness and estimate whether this knowledge is put into practice. This study, therefore, aimed to determine the level of awareness and practices of proper health-seeking behavior and to identify the factors responsible for self-medication among doctors and nurses in a tertiary hospital in Nigeria. Methodology: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted between April and may 2018 among 106 doctors and 164 nurses in a tertiary health facility in Ido-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Southwestern Nigeria. A simple random sampling technique by balloting was performed from the list of doctors and nurses in the hospital to select doctors and nurses that participated in the study. A pretested semi-structured self-administered questionnaire was designed and used to collect data. The data were entered into the computer software and analyzed using SPSS version 20. P ≤ 0.05 was taken as significant. Result: Out of 106 doctors and 164 nurses recruited, only 102 doctors and 143 nurses filled the questionnaire completely and returned for analysis. One hundred and four respondents (42.4%) fall within the ages of 31 - 40 years with a male to female ratio of 1:1.23. Awareness of proper health seeking behavior among both doctors and nurses was high among the two groups with no statistically significant difference between them. Twenty-nine (28.0%) doctors compared with thirty-four (23.8%) nurses go for a regular medical check-up with no statistically significant difference between the two groups (p = 0.411). Out of these, 5 (17.2%) doctors and 7 (23.8%) nurses visit at an interval of less than 6 month (p = 0.736). There is a statistically significant difference in the number of doctors (60.8%) compared with nurses (41.3%) that have consulted a doctor in the last one year (p = 0.003). More than half (51.6%) of this consultation among doctors was over the phone whereas 64.4% of such among nurses were via clinic appointment (p = 0.008). More doctors (90.2%) comply with their treatment prescription from physicians compared with nurses (77.6%) (p = 0.010). More nurses compared with doctors self-medicate when ill [Doctor 61.8% (63), Nurses 78.3% (112)] (p = 0.005) and had also self-medicated in the last one year [Doctor 34.3% (35), Nurses 42.7% (61)] (p = 0.187). Decreasing age, decreasing years of experience, increasing working hours, lack of health insurance, fear of confidentiality and lack of satisfaction with health services are factors that significantly increased the likelihood of self-medication among doctors and nurses within the last one year. Conclusion: Awareness of proper health seeking behavior was high but this did not translate into proper health-seeking practices among doctors and nurses. There is apathy for regular medical check-up and self-medication was also high among this group of health workers. Decreasing age and years of experience, increasing working hours, lack of health insurance, fear of confidentiality and lack of satisfaction with health services were factors were identified to significantly increase the likelihood of self-medication.
基金Health Sciences Centre Medical Staff Council Resident Research Award
文摘AIM To investigate the effects of direct to colonoscopy pathways on information seeking behaviors and anxiety among colonoscopy-na?ve patients.METHODS Colonoscopy-na?ve patients at two tertiary care hospitals completed a survey immediately prior to their scheduled outpatient procedure and before receiving sedation.Survey items included clinical pathway(direct or consult),procedure indication(cancer screening or symptom investigation),telephone and written contact from the physician endoscopist office,information sources,and pre-procedure anxiety.Participants reported pre-procedure anxiety using a 10 point scale anchored by "very relaxed"(1) and "very nervous"(10).At least three months following the procedure,patient medical records were reviewed to determine sedative dose,procedure indications and any adverse events.The primary comparison was between the direct and consult pathways.Given the very different implications,a secondary analysis considering the patient-reported indication for the procedure(symptoms or screening).Effects of pathway(direct vs consult) were compared both within and between the screening and symptom subgroups.RESULTS Of 409 patients who completed the survey,34% followed a direct pathway.Indications for colonoscopy were similar in each group.The majority of the participants were women(58%),married(61%),and internet users(81%).The most important information source was family physicians(Direct) and specialist physicians(Consult).Use of other information sources,including the internet(20% vs 18%) and Direct family and friends(64% vs 53%),was similar in the Direct and Consult groups,respectively.Only 31% of the 81% who were internet users accessed internet health information.Most sought fundamental information such as what a colonoscopy is or why it is done.Pre-procedure anxiety did not differ between care pathways.Those undergoing colonoscopy for symptoms reported greater anxiety [mean 5.3,95%CI: 5.0-5.7(10 point Likert scale)] than those for screening colonoscopy(4.3,95%CI: 3.9-4.7).CONCLUSION Procedure indication(cancer screening or symptom investigation) was more closely associated with information seeking behaviors and pre-procedure anxiety than care pathway.
基金This study was funded by Jiangsu Provincial University Philosophy and Social Science Research Fund(grant number 2022SJYB0105).
文摘The migrants are the important participant and contributor in China’s economic and social construction,but they still have many restrictions on their access to health services.This paper analyzes the differences between the migrants and the regis-tered local residents in looking for medical treatment and explores the relationship between health education and medical treatment seeking behavior,so as to find an appropriate way to improve the health level of the migrants.By using the compara-tive survey data of the floating population and registered population in 2017 and establishing the binary Logit model,this paper finds that the health education has a promoting effect on medical treatment seeking behaviors.In terms of the influence mechanism of health education on medical treatment seeking behavior,the mediat-ing effect of social participation factors is stronger in the migrants’group because making new friends and learning about local public health resources through health education is of great significance to the migrants.It is proposed to expand the cov-erage of health education among migrant groups and improve the accessibility of health education.At the same time,public medical and health services should be used as a window to guide the migrants to seek medical treatment in an orderly manner while assisting their social integration.