Healthcare-seeking behaviours of patients with acute respiratory infection: a cross-sectional survey in a rural area of southwest China
Objectives
This study aimed to assess the healthcare-seeking behaviour and related factors of people with acute respiratory symptoms in the rural areas of central and western China to estimate the disease burden of influenza more accurately.
Design
Cross-sectional survey.
Settings
Fifty-two communities/villages in the Wanzhou District, Chongqing, China, a rural area in southwest China, from May 2022 to July 2022.
Participants
The participants were those who had been living in Wanzhou District continuously for more than 6 months and consented to participate.
Outcome measures
A semistructured questionnaire was used to determine the healthcare-seeking behaviour of participants, and the dichotomous response of ‘yes’ or ‘no’ was used to assess whether participants had acute respiratory symptoms and their healthcare-seeking behaviour.
Results
Only 50.92% (360 of 707) of the patients with acute respiratory infection visited medical and health institutions for treatment, whereas 49.08% (347 of 707) avoided treatment or opted for self-medication. The primary reason for not seeing a doctor was that patients felt their condition was not serious and visiting a medical facility for treatment was unnecessary. Short distance (87.54%) and reasonable charges (49.48%) were ranked as the most important reasons for choosing treatment at primary medical and health facilities (80.27%). The primary reasons for which patients visited secondary and tertiary hospitals (7.78% and 8.61%, respectively) were that doctors in such facilities were better at diagnosis (57.14%) and at treatment (87.10%).
Conclusion
The findings provided in this study indicated that regular healthcare-seeking behaviour investigations should be conducted. The disease burden of influenza can be calculated more accurately when healthcare-seeking behaviour investigations are combined with surveillance in the hospitals.
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