Abstract:

Introduction: Healthcare seeking behaviour has been defined as any set of actions undertaken by an individual who perceives a health problem or an illness for the purpose of finding an appropriate remedy¹. This is based on an Explanatory model which has a coherent picture of specific cultural features and these features in turn predispose an individual to certain health behaviour. Against the backdrop of the need for understanding the effects of socio-demographiccharacteristics on  healthcare seeking behaviour of individuals from sociological perspectives, this study assessed some of those factors among users of primary health care facility (PHC)in Ado-Odo Ota local government (LGA), Ogun State, Nigeria.

Methods: Descriptive cross sectional study among 300 selected users of PHC that are resident of Ado-Odo Ota using multistage sampling method. Data was analyzed using the SPSS software version 21.0.  Three hundred (male-97, female 203) users of PHC were sampled through multistage sampling technique in these wards. Instrument used for data collection was a self-developed, validated questionnaire with reliability of 0.72 using Chrombach alpha coefficient. Multiple regression, Analysis of Variance and Independent T-test were used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance.

Results: Using the framework from the ‘‘four As’ theories and concepts; findings based on the survey revealed that household headship, educational level and income predicted increase in service utilization at PHC in Ado-Odo Ota LGA (R = .252; R² = .064; Adj. R² = .054) ;(F calculated _{(3, 299)} = 6.715 > f-table = 3.86; p <.05).  Statistical significance also existed in service utilization between male and female in the study area.

Conclusion: Based on the study outcome, it was recommended among others that there is need for continuous community mobilization by healthcare providers especially the Public/Community health Nurses and Community extension workers to enhance active community involvement and continuous increase in service utilization.

Keywords: Healthcare seeking, PHC Users, Ogun State, Nigeria.

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