What Makes Vietnamese (Not) Attend Periodic General Health Examinations? A 2016 Cross-sectional Study

OBJECTIVES: General health examinations (GHE) have become an increasingly common measure for preventive medicine in Vietnam. However, little is known about the factors among Viet-namese people who attend or miss GHE. Budget or time constraints remain to be evaluated for better-informed policy making. This study investigates factors affecting behaviors in attending periodic GHE. The main objectives are as follows: (1) to explore empirical relationships between influencing factors and periodic GHE frequencies, and (2) to predict the probabilities of attending GHE under associated conditions. METHODS: The study used a 2,068-observational dataset, obtained from a Vietnamese survey in 2016. The analysis was then performed using the methods of baseline-category logits for establishing relationships between predictor and response variables. RESULTS: Significant relationships were found among the expenditure and time consumption, health priority and sensitivity to health data, insurance status, and frequency of GHE, with most p-values = 0.01. CONCLUSION: Generally, people attended the GHE when they had the resources and health priorities (72.7% probability). Expenditure and time remain key obstacles to the periodic GHE. Health priority and health data are important in improving rates for GHEs. Health insurance should play a positive role in promoting the GHE.