Abstract:

Background of the study: Snakebite is one of the devastating NTDs, the outcome of its management depends on the health-seeking behavior of the victims. There are many factors that influence healthcare seeking behavior in general, which of these factors that influence the health-seeking behavior of snakebite victims in communities of Kaltungo local government area is not clearly known.

Aim: The aim of this study is to assess predisposing factors to snakebite, and the health-seeking behavior of the snakebite victims in kaltungo LGA, Gombe.

Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 398 participants in a community of Kaltungo local government area. Pre-tested and standardized questionnaires were used to obtain relevant information by trained research assistants.

Result: Visits to traditional healers (48%) was most common source of healthcare sought after snakebite. This was followed by visits to hospital (41.7%), spiritual healers (4.8%) and Chemist (5.5%). About a third (33.2%) of the respondents considered treatment effectiveness as the most important factor affecting health-seeking behaviour. This was followed by affordability (20.9%), proximity (11.8%), relative cost of treatment (10.8%) and service availability (6.0%). Educational level (X² = 7.584, p=0.05) is significantly associated with seeking healthcare from formal source

Conclusion: Appropriate health-seeking behaviour among snakebite victims was found to be high among the educated. Thus, those with lower levels of education need to be targeted during health education program to improve health-seeking behaviour among snakebite victims. In addition, health insurance schemes should be extended to cover more of the population.

Keywords: health-seeking; behaviour; neglected tropical diseases; snakebite victims; outcome; rural.

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