Abstract
BackgroundAlthough the progress in global health initiatives has improved the availability of primary health care (PHC), unqualified healthcare remains a serious challenge in low- and middle-income countries, where PHC is often underutilized. This study examines factors associated with patients’ healthcare-seeking behaviors in rural Chin—seeking healthcare at village-level PHC providers, at higher-level health facilities, self-medicating, and refraining from seeking medical help. We focus on provider-side factors, including (1) the unobservable quality indicator, (2) the observable quality indicator, and (3) the observable signal indicator.MethodsWe analyzed 1578 episodes of healthcare-seeking behaviors of patients with diarrhea or cough/runny nose symptom from surveys conducted in July 2017 and January 2018 in 114 villages of the Yunnan province. We investigated the correlation between quality-related factors with patients’ healthcare-seeking behaviors by multinomial logit regression.ResultsWe found that rural patients were insensitive to the unobservable quality of healthcare providers, as measured by standardized clinical vignettes, which might be attributable to the credence nature of PHC. The observable quality indicator, whether the clinician has received full-time junior college formal medical education, was associated with patients’ healthcare choices. Patients, however, were more likely to select healthcare based on the observable signal indicator, which was measured by the availability of medicines. Additionally, the observable signal indicator had no significant association with two quality indicators. Notably, socioeconomically-disadvantaged patients relied more on the village-level PHC, which emphasized the role of PHC in promoting the welfare of rural populations.ConclusionsOur study found an inconsistency between objective quality of healthcare provided by providers and subjective quality perceived by patients. Patients could not identify the actual quality of PHC precisely, while they were more likely to make decisions based on the observable signal indicator. Therefore, the quality of PHC should be more observable to patients. This study not only supplements the literature on healthcare-seeking choices by examining four types of behaviors simultaneously but also clarifies rural patients’ perceptions of the quality of PHC for policy decision-making on increasing the utilization of PHC and improving the medical welfare of the vulnerable.
Highlights
The progress in global health initiatives has improved the availability of primary health care (PHC), unqualified healthcare remains a serious challenge in low- and middle-income countries, where PHC is often underutilized
This study explored the factors associated with healthcareseeking behaviors, especially the unobservable quality indicator, the observable quality indicator, and the observable signal indicator
We focused on diarrhea and a cough/ runny nose, which can be diagnosed and treated in village clinics (VCs), the bottom-level PHC providers in rural China
Summary
The progress in global health initiatives has improved the availability of primary health care (PHC), unqualified healthcare remains a serious challenge in low- and middle-income countries, where PHC is often underutilized. It is common for patients to bypass nearby PHC for providers that are farther away, in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) [4, 5], but even in high-income countries where competent PHC are accessible [6, 7] These health-seeking behaviors incur a loss of earnings, additional economic costs, and a waste of resources. A systematic review of 34 studies reported a 38.8% overall prevalence of antimicrobial self-medication in LMICs is 38.8% with 34.1% in the Middle East, 38.0% in Asia, 40.6% in Sub-Saharan Africa, and 44.1% in South America [8] This phenomenon exists in high-income economies, where the prevalence is relatively lower due to strict regulations on drug sales—7% in European Union [9] and 5% in the United States [10]
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