Abstract
Health seeking practices is critical towards early screening, detection and control of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (LUTS) whereby human prostate gland is the major cause of benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) and prostate cancer (PCA), which mostly accounts for LUTS. Social cultural factors such as cultural beliefs, educational level, income level and religion among many others have a direct influence on health seeking practices both positively and negatively in as far as LUTS are concerned. The researcher explored social cultural factors influencing health seeking practices among men with LUTS attending surgical outpatient clinic at Meru level five hospital (Kenya). De-scriptive cross-sectional study design was used to collect data from 120 men with LUTS, and 4 health workers. Census method was used to select the study participants with questionnaires, interview guide and focused group discussion used as instruments of data collection. Quantitative data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 22, whereas the qualitative data was analyzed using qualitative techniques. Descriptive statistics were computed to generate percentages and frequencies, which were then presented in tables and charts. Logistic regression was used whereby P-values were employed to determine the statistical significance of results with cut off set at (p ≤0.05). Majority (67.0%) of the patients with LUTS were aged between 61-70 years. Also, majority (68.8%) of the respondents had primary level of education, with majority (72.0%) of them being farmers with an income level of below Ksh. 20,000. The study results showed that social cultural factors had statistical significant influence on health seeking practices among men with LUTS.   Â
Highlights
Lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) describe a distinct phenotype of a group of disorders affecting bladder and prostate that share common clinical manifestations to include frequency, urgency, nocturia, difficult in initiating urination, sense of incomplete bladder emptying, decreased force of stream and interrupted stream (Parsons 2010).The human prostate is the cause of Benign Prostate Hyperplasia(BPH) and Prostate Cancer (Pca) which mostly accounts for Lower urinary Tract Symptoms (Nehikhare et al, 2017)
Based on the analysis of the respondents’ views regarding the cultural beliefs attached to health care seeking practices in their community among patients suffering from LUTS, the study findings showed that majority of respondents believed that men cannot undress in front of ladies even if these ladies were health care providers
On income levels the study revealed that majority (77.7%) of study subjects earned below Kshs.20, 000 monthly which is almost similar to study done by Dotson et al (2016) about epidemiology of prostate cancer in Jamaica whereby majority of respondents lived below 53 USD weekly
Summary
Lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) describe a distinct phenotype of a group of disorders affecting bladder and prostate that share common clinical manifestations to include frequency, urgency, nocturia, difficult in initiating urination, sense of incomplete bladder emptying, decreased force of stream and interrupted stream (Parsons 2010).The human prostate is the cause of Benign Prostate Hyperplasia(BPH) and Prostate Cancer (Pca) which mostly accounts for Lower urinary Tract Symptoms (Nehikhare et al, 2017). According to a study done in Nigeria (2016) on the preventive and treatment of LUTS, two thirds (72.1%) of the subjects had complications of LUTS/BPH. This was because they presented themselves to the health care facility late. There are no documented studies that have been carried out at Meru Level Five county referral Hospital on socio-cultural factors influencing health seeking practices among men suffering from Lower Urinary Tract Symptom attending surgical outpatient clinic in the health care facility, the basis for this study
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