Health seeking behavior and affecting factors

HEALTH SEEKING BEHAVIOR AND AFFECTING FACTORS Introduction and Aim Health is the most important and valuable indicator of the continuity and quality of life. It can be said that, today, with health physical, mental and social aspects most fundamental expectation and needs, is an expression of absolute well-being of all people The purpose of this study is to understand what it means the concepts like "health" and "being healthy" for individuals, feelings and thoughts when there is a deterioration or abnormalities in their health and after that to understand how the process of health seeking behaviour is being shaped. In additionally, we will try to understand the factors that affects the formation and sustaining of health seeking behaviour and the consultation systems during their illness behaviour and its effects. Likewise to grasp, the perception and expectations of individuals when they need health services. Materials and Methods The study was designed as a qualitative research. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interview technique. The thematic analysis technique being used to analyse the data. The study universe was defined as adults over the age of 18 living in Aydın. The sample size was defined as at least 30 adult persons. Interviews were carried out by two researchers in between September and December, 2014 as face to face individual interviews. All interviews were recorded as audio recording and later they were transcribed into Word documents. In order to determine the main themes these documents were read several times. We defined explanatory relations between at these themes, and tried to reach to findings of study Results We had 30 participants living in Aydın aged 18 years older and above adults. The average age of participants was found to be 44.3 ± 11.5. Participants are 8 female (26.7%) and 22 men (73.3%). In the interviews we tried to gather information on five main topics: 97 perception of being healthy, to realize the deterioration in health, interpretation of deterioration of health and the reactions, help-seeking behaviour and health service usage. The main findings: Participants expressed a sense of the overarching health and they are aware of the importance for themselves. They listen to themselves when there is a deterioration of health and try to understand the changes in their bodies, are trying to recognize their own bodies. The most important challenge for the participants is the difficulty of knowing what is the problem, where to go and to seek for the solution when there is a health issue. In all health problems there is diversity in health seeking behaviour. In all kinds of health seeking behaviour, internet usage and consulting system are the most important factors. In terms of using health services the most basic problems have been observed as: the money, transportation issues, health insurance, inability to find someone who can help, bureaucratic processes, systemic barriers. The communication between patient and doctor plays an important role in terms of taking health care. Conclusion The definition of health is different for everyone. However, all participants shares the thought of its importance and value for them. This awareness to high level, provide the motivation to keep in good condition in their health. At the same time this awareness can be as a starting point in order to reaching individual and social good health targets. The difficulty with the first point contact of health care services when there is a deterioration in health, gives great damage to the scheme of health service provision. Health care presentation is in itself an important factor in the formation of health-seeking behaviour. The reduction of obstacles in front of the health service delivery and access to it will have a positive effect in terms of health seeking behaviour. New quantitative studies designed to cover all components of the health-seeking behaviour and evaluate them with the results of our study will provide more detail understanding of subject matter under consideration. Keywords:Health seeking behaviour, illness behaviour, health care usage, being healthy , deterioration of health