Abstract
BackgroundAppropriate healthcare-seeking behavior and access to the health care facility is key to improving health service utilization. Although the accessibility of comprehensive childhood disease intervention services in Ethiopia has been modified at the community level, the use of such health care services has remained limited. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the healthcare-seeking behavior of common childhood illness and its determinants.MethodsA community-based cross-sectional study design was used. A multi-stage sampling method was used to recruit eight hundred and thirty-four study participants. A pre-tested and standardized questionnaire was used to collect data. The collected data were visually checked for incompleteness and entered into the statistical software Epi-info version 7 and exported to SPSS version 20 software for descriptive and bi-variable analysis. To identify variables associated with the healthcare-seeking behavior. Logistic regression analysis was performed. Adjusted odds ratios with a 95% confidence interval were used to see the strength of association, and variables with P-values of < 0.05 were considered statistically significant.ResultsThe proportion of health care seeking behavior of care-givers for childhood illness was 69.5% (95% CI, 66.4, 72.4%). The education level of caregiver (AOR: 1.61, 95% CI: 1.01–2.60), knowledge of childhood illness (AOR: 2.02, 95% CI: 1.46–2.79), cough (AOR: 1.94, 95% CI: 1.39–2.71) and diarrhea (AOR: 2.09, 95% CI: 1.46–2.99) as main symptoms of illness and perceived severity of illness (AOR:3.12, 95% CI: 2.22–4.40) were significantly associated with healthcare-seeking behaviors of caregivers.ConclusionLow healthcare-seeking behavior was observed for childhood illnesses. Educational level, knowledge of childhood illness, cough, and diarrhea as primary symptoms of illness, and perceived severity of caregiver illness were significant associated with healthcare-seeking behavior. Therefore, interventions that strengthen the caregiver’s awareness of childhood illness and danger signs need to be considered. Besides, addressing the identified associated variables to healthcare-seeking behavior is critically important to curb the problem.
Highlights
Appropriate healthcare-seeking behavior and access to the health care facility is key to improving health service utilization
Factors associated with healthcare-seeking behavior for common childhood illness In the bivariable logistic regression analysis knowledge and perceived severity of illness of caregivers, age and main symptoms of illness of the sick child were significant associated with healthcare-seeking behavior at a pvalue of less than 0.2
This study presented several insights about the healthcare-seeking behavior of caregivers for children with reported cough, diarrhea, and fever in the last 2 weeks, type of facilities visited for seeking care, socioeconomic and demographic factors affecting healthcareseeking behaviors of caregivers
Summary
Appropriate healthcare-seeking behavior and access to the health care facility is key to improving health service utilization. Despite substantial progress in reducing child mortality worldwide over the past three decades, more than five million children die each year from the most preventable causes, and the issue of child mortality remains persistent [1]. In 2019, the under-five child mortality rate dropped from 200 deaths per 1000 live births to 51 deaths per 1000 live births, with an annual reduction rate of 4.7% [2]. Despite this surprising success over the past three decades, children under the age of five in Ethiopia still die from preventable or treatable conditions every year. A significant proportion of deaths and illnesses due to these diseases can be avoided by the low cost and available preventive interventions [3]
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