Prevalence and Determinants of Appropriate Health Seeking Behaviour among Known Diabetics: Results from a Community-Based Survey

Introduction. Living with diabetes requires patients to have good self-monitoring of their disease and treatment. Appropriate health seeking behavior is important to minimize complications and improve quality of life. Methodology. A community-based, cross-sectional study of disease events and experiences from diagnosis to the time of study was conducted among 460 known diabetics in Tanjong Karang district. The aim of this study was to describe the current pattern of health seeking behavior and its determinants among rural communities. Appropriate diabetic health services utilization was defined as using modern treatment either through oral hypoglycemics or insulin injections, obtained from either a public or private health facility. Result. 85.9% of respondents reported having appropriate health seeking behaviour at the time of the house-to-house community survey. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that appropriate health seeking behaviour was significantly associated with age of respondent, presence of comorbidity, family history of diabetes, distance from health facilities, perceived family support, and history of early treatment seeking at diagnosis and duration of disease. Conclusion. The present population has better appropriate health seeking behavior and provision of knowledge with strong family support in diabetic care which are important in control and prevention of diabetic complication that need to be emphasized