Health-seeking behaviour among Ghanaian urban residents: A quantitative exploratory case study

Health seeking behaviour is important for personal and social reasons, and several health problems can be adequately treated if they are reported early for appropriate health intervention. We examined the health-seeking behaviour of residents of a suburb in the capital of Ghana, the point in ill-health that they seek healthcare, their first point of call for healthcare, and the determinants of choice of first point of call. Simple random sampling was used to select 316 eligible respondents. Quantitative data were collected with questionnaire and analysed with IBM SPSS version 22. Descriptive statistics and Logistic regression were used to interpret the findings at 95% confidence intervals. Most respondents (50.6%) sought healthcare days to months after their first experience with ill-health, 15.5% sought healthcare when they were severely ill, and about 34% sought healthcare immediately they experienced ill-health. Most of the respondents’ (54.2%) first point of call for healthcare was self-medication with herbal sources or faith-based healing, and 45.8% sought attention from orthodox sources. Males were 1.97 times more likely than females; married individuals were 2.33 times more likely than the unmarried; and health insurance holders were 1.55 times more likely than the uninsured to use orthodox outfits as first point of call for healthcare. Healthcare stakeholders and policy makers need to intensify education on the need to seek orthodox healthcare in ill-health, encourage increased enrolment on the national health insurance scheme and strengthen social support systems that encourage good health-seeking behaviours