Age, sex and primary care setting differences in patients’ perception of community healthcare seeking behaviour towards health services

INTRODUCTION: Understanding the potential determinants of community healthcare seeking behaviour helps in improving healthcare utilisation and health outcomes within different populations. This in turn will aid the development of healthcare policies and planning for prevention, early diagnosis and management of health conditions. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate patients’ perception of community healthcare seeking behaviour towards both acute and preventive physical and psychosocial health concerns by sex, age and type of primary care setting (as a proxy for affordability of healthcare). METHODS: A total of 3979 patients from 221 public and 239 private clinics in Malaysia were interviewed between June 2015 and February 2016 using a patient experience survey questionnaire from the Quality and Cost of Primary Care cross-sectional study. Multivariable logistic regression analysis adjusted for the complex survey design was used. RESULTS: After adjusting for covariates, more women than men perceived that most people would see their general practitioners for commonly consulted acute and preventive physical and some psychosocial health concerns such as stomach pain (adjusted odds ratio (AOR), 1.64; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.22–2.21), sprained ankle (AOR, 1.29; 95% CI, 1.06–1.56), anxiety (AOR, 1.32; 95% CI, 1.12–1.55), domestic violence (AOR, 1.35; 95% CI, 1.13–1.62) and relationship problems (AOR, 1.24; 95% CI, 1.02–1.51). There were no significant differences in perceived healthcare seeking behaviour by age groups except for the removal of a wart (AOR, 1.41; 95% CI, 1.12–1.76). Patients who visited the public clinics had generally higher perception of community healthcare seeking behaviour for both acute and preventive physical and psychosocial health concerns compared to those who went to private clinics. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings showed that sex and healthcare affordability differences were present in perceived community healthcare seeking behaviour towards primary care services. Also perceived healthcare seeking behaviour were consistently lower for psychosocial health concerns compared to physical health concerns.