Health Seeking Behaviour among Persons with STIs in Ghana
Date
2019-07
Authors
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Publisher
University of Ghana
Abstract
Over the years, the meaning of health seeking behaviour (HSB) has gone beyond just the use of
health care facilities to include understanding what social and cultural factors influence a person’s
decision to utilize a healthcare facility. Although most STIs are treatable, a range of social and
cultural factors prevent access to healthcare treatment and this contributes to the burden of
untreated infection. An important tool in effective sexually transmitted infection (STI) control is
to understand the health seeking behaviour of people with STIs and the factors that influence this
behaviour. Although data on STI prevalence in Ghana is accessible, studies on health seeking
behaviour with regards to individuals with STIs is limited. This study aims to examine the
demographic and socio-economic determinants of the health seeking behaviour of persons with
STIs in Ghana using data from the 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS). A
sample of 1974 females and 307 males between the ages of 15-49 years was used in this study.
Analyses were carried out at three levels; univariate, bivariate and multivariate levels of analyses.
Univariate analysis was used to provide a description of the background characteristics of the
sample population. Chi-square tests were used to test for associations between the independent
and dependent variables as well as the intermediate and dependent variables while binary logistic
regression tests were used to determine predictors at a 95% confidence level. Findings showed that
70.2% of respondents sought STI treatment. Results from the bivariate analysis revealed that age,
place of residence, ethnicity, educational level, region of residence, religion, wealth quintile,
knowledge about STIs, health insurance were found to have a significant relationship with health
seeking behaviour. However, sex, marital status and employment status were not statistically
significant with health seeking behaviour. This study brought to the fore the fact that even though
the majority of respondents sought STI treatment, teenagers, individuals with lower levels of
education, poorer individuals, traditionalists, individuals with no health insurance and individuals
with poor knowledge about STIs had lesser likelihoods of seeking STI treatment. This implies that
age, education, wealth, religion, health insurance and knowledge about STIs are predictors of
health seeking behaviour in Ghana. This study therefore recommends that, the sub-groups less
likely to seek STI treatment need to be targeted during policy formulation to improve health
seeking behaviour and subsequently sexual and reproductive health.
Key words: Health Seeking Behaviour, Sexually Transmitted Infection, Demographic and Socioeconomic Determinants, Ghana
Description
MA. Population Studies
Keywords
Health Seeking Behaviour, Sexually Transmitted Infection, Ghana