Health Seeking Behavior among Mentally and Physically Ill Patients: A Comparative Study

Health-seeking behaviour has been defined as a sequence of remedial actions that individuals undertake to rectify perceived ill-health. Therefore, this study was to assess the barriers affecting seeking health care services as perceived by mentally and physically ill patients. A descriptive comparative design was utilized in this study. A sample of convenience of 100 patients (50 physically ill patients and 50 mentally ill patients) was recruited for the conduction of this study. Socio-demographic/medical data sheet, barriers affecting seeking health care services questionnaire were used for data collection. Findings of this study indicated that, near half of studied sample of patients with mental illness express severe level of difficulties in seeking health care services as compared to more than one third of patients with physical diseases. Meanwhile, more than one third of studied sample of patients with mental illness express moderate level of difficulties in seeking health care services as compared to two thirds of patients with physical diseases. To conclude no statistical difference was found between patients with mental illness and patients with physical disease in relation to barriers affecting seeking health care services. Further studies on a larger number of patients with different diagnoses from different geographical areas are recommended