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Respiratory illness healthcare-seeking behavior assessment in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Laos)

BACKGROUND: Respiratory illness (RI) remains a public health problem in Laos, but little is known about the overall burden and people’s healthcare-seeking behavior for RI. Understanding the burden of RI and community patterns of healthcare-seeking behavior would provide better guidance for Lao publi...

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Autores principales: Mayxay, Mayfong, Hansana, Visanou, Sengphilom, Bouachanh, Oulay, Latsamy, Thammavongsa, Vatsana, Somphet, Vatsana, Taykeophithoune, Chansathit, Nathavong, Soudavanh, Phanthady, Johnly, Chareunvong, Kongmany, Chanthavilay, Phetsavanh, Sychareun, Vanphanom
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3689642/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23642240
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-13-444
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author Mayxay, Mayfong
Hansana, Visanou
Sengphilom, Bouachanh
Oulay, Latsamy
Thammavongsa, Vatsana
Somphet, Vatsana
Taykeophithoune, Chansathit
Nathavong, Soudavanh
Phanthady, Johnly
Chareunvong, Kongmany
Chanthavilay, Phetsavanh
Sychareun, Vanphanom
author_facet Mayxay, Mayfong
Hansana, Visanou
Sengphilom, Bouachanh
Oulay, Latsamy
Thammavongsa, Vatsana
Somphet, Vatsana
Taykeophithoune, Chansathit
Nathavong, Soudavanh
Phanthady, Johnly
Chareunvong, Kongmany
Chanthavilay, Phetsavanh
Sychareun, Vanphanom
author_sort Mayxay, Mayfong
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Respiratory illness (RI) remains a public health problem in Laos, but little is known about the overall burden and people’s healthcare-seeking behavior for RI. Understanding the burden of RI and community patterns of healthcare-seeking behavior would provide better guidance for Lao public health program and policy planners to improve RI public health practice, surveillance systems, and prevention strategies. METHODS: A quantitative and qualitative survey was conducted in 14 randomly selected villages of two purposively selected peri-urban and two rural provinces in Laos. A pre-designed and pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect information on RI in household members (defined as new fever with cough and/or sore-throat in the absence of other diagnoses during the preceding 30 days) from all heads of household in each village. Sixteen focus group discussions were conducted to obtain more information to support the quantitative survey. RESULTS: Among 1,751 households (9,114 people) studied, 3.5% (317/9,114) had experienced RI (fever, cough, and/or sore-throat) in the 30 days before the survey [6.2% in rural and 2.4% in peri-urban areas (p<0.001)]. The percentage of RI among persons aged ≥15 years was 2.7%, 3.7% for those aged 5 – 14 years, and 8.2% for children < 5 years (p<0.001). Of all sick persons, 71% sought treatment [94% in peri-urban and 48% in rural areas (p<0.001)] and 31.5% of them self-medicated [55.5% in peri-urban and 29% in rural areas (p<0.001)]. Sick people in peri-urban areas preferred to chose private clinics and pharmacies as their first treatment option while in rural areas they frequently consulted with village health volunteers and visited health centres as their first choice. The qualitative study suggests that distance, costs of care, and service availability are the most important determinants of seeking healthcare. CONCLUSIONS: The RI burden and healthcare-seeking behavior are different between rural and peri-urban areas of Laos and this is probably due to the differences in environmental and hygienic conditions, health service availability and socio-economic status between the two areas. Therefore strategies for healthcare service improvement may also need to differ between the two areas.
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spelling pubmed-36896422013-06-22 Respiratory illness healthcare-seeking behavior assessment in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Laos) Mayxay, Mayfong Hansana, Visanou Sengphilom, Bouachanh Oulay, Latsamy Thammavongsa, Vatsana Somphet, Vatsana Taykeophithoune, Chansathit Nathavong, Soudavanh Phanthady, Johnly Chareunvong, Kongmany Chanthavilay, Phetsavanh Sychareun, Vanphanom BMC Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: Respiratory illness (RI) remains a public health problem in Laos, but little is known about the overall burden and people’s healthcare-seeking behavior for RI. Understanding the burden of RI and community patterns of healthcare-seeking behavior would provide better guidance for Lao public health program and policy planners to improve RI public health practice, surveillance systems, and prevention strategies. METHODS: A quantitative and qualitative survey was conducted in 14 randomly selected villages of two purposively selected peri-urban and two rural provinces in Laos. A pre-designed and pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect information on RI in household members (defined as new fever with cough and/or sore-throat in the absence of other diagnoses during the preceding 30 days) from all heads of household in each village. Sixteen focus group discussions were conducted to obtain more information to support the quantitative survey. RESULTS: Among 1,751 households (9,114 people) studied, 3.5% (317/9,114) had experienced RI (fever, cough, and/or sore-throat) in the 30 days before the survey [6.2% in rural and 2.4% in peri-urban areas (p<0.001)]. The percentage of RI among persons aged ≥15 years was 2.7%, 3.7% for those aged 5 – 14 years, and 8.2% for children < 5 years (p<0.001). Of all sick persons, 71% sought treatment [94% in peri-urban and 48% in rural areas (p<0.001)] and 31.5% of them self-medicated [55.5% in peri-urban and 29% in rural areas (p<0.001)]. Sick people in peri-urban areas preferred to chose private clinics and pharmacies as their first treatment option while in rural areas they frequently consulted with village health volunteers and visited health centres as their first choice. The qualitative study suggests that distance, costs of care, and service availability are the most important determinants of seeking healthcare. CONCLUSIONS: The RI burden and healthcare-seeking behavior are different between rural and peri-urban areas of Laos and this is probably due to the differences in environmental and hygienic conditions, health service availability and socio-economic status between the two areas. Therefore strategies for healthcare service improvement may also need to differ between the two areas. BioMed Central 2013-05-04 /pmc/articles/PMC3689642/ /pubmed/23642240 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-13-444 Text en Copyright © 2013 Mayxay et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Mayxay, Mayfong
Hansana, Visanou
Sengphilom, Bouachanh
Oulay, Latsamy
Thammavongsa, Vatsana
Somphet, Vatsana
Taykeophithoune, Chansathit
Nathavong, Soudavanh
Phanthady, Johnly
Chareunvong, Kongmany
Chanthavilay, Phetsavanh
Sychareun, Vanphanom
Respiratory illness healthcare-seeking behavior assessment in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Laos)
title Respiratory illness healthcare-seeking behavior assessment in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Laos)
title_full Respiratory illness healthcare-seeking behavior assessment in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Laos)
title_fullStr Respiratory illness healthcare-seeking behavior assessment in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Laos)
title_full_unstemmed Respiratory illness healthcare-seeking behavior assessment in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Laos)
title_short Respiratory illness healthcare-seeking behavior assessment in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Laos)
title_sort respiratory illness healthcare-seeking behavior assessment in the lao people’s democratic republic (laos)
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3689642/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23642240
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-13-444
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