GASPRO International Journal of Eminent Scholars

Poor, delayed or inappropriate health seeking for a sick person with acute illness is associated with high morbidity/mortality. Delay in health seeking is implicated with fatal complications and prolonged need for health services. Thus, health seeking behaviour is an important factor in health management and it becomes relevant among underprivileged populations like urban slums, tribal populations. This study assessed the determinants of health care seeking behaviour among dwellers of Oron urban, in Oron Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. A community based descriptive study was adopted in the study. Five hundred and thirty participants were selected for the study using simple random sampling method. A researcher’s structured questionnaire was used to collect the data and was administered after obtaining valid informed consent from the participants. Among 530 study participants, majority (40.7%) seek health care from Government owned health facilities for various illnesses. Also 27.2% of the study participants visited the patent medicine dealers/Pharmacy and 20.6% preferred private health facilities. Among various morbidity conditions, cold/fever (29.1%) and pain (19.4%) were the most common reasons for visiting a health care facility. Individual’s income was significantly associated with the healthcare seeking behaviour of the study participants (p<0.05). Affordability, and accessibility were reported as most common reason for preferring to the Government owned health facility. On other hand, private practitioners were preferred due to their emergency services and quality of care. The choice of participants of health facility was statistically significant (p<0.05). Healthcare seeking behaviour of the study participants was influenced by health care facilities, income and the morbidity conditions hence, strengthening of public health care system to offer quality basic health services could improve health seeking behaviour of people. One of the recommendations was that provision of a seamless supply system, infrastructural support, and technical support for soft skills could minimize the turnaround time which is critical.