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Treatment-Seeking Behavior Among Male Civil Servants in Northeastern Malaysia: A Mixed-Methods Study
Background: Men’s health in Malaysia is slowly gaining more attention, but minimal research has examined how Malaysian men behave and seek treatment. While few studies have investigated men’s treatment-seeking behavior (TSB), those that have been conducted seem to be inconclusive and tend to yield c...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7216173/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32326447 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17082713 |
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author | Arumugam, Pathman Tengku Ismail, Tengku Alina Daud, Aziah Musa, Kamarul Imran A. Hamid, Noor Aman Ismail, Shaiful Bahari Mohd Said, Zakiah |
author_facet | Arumugam, Pathman Tengku Ismail, Tengku Alina Daud, Aziah Musa, Kamarul Imran A. Hamid, Noor Aman Ismail, Shaiful Bahari Mohd Said, Zakiah |
author_sort | Arumugam, Pathman |
collection | PubMed |
description | Background: Men’s health in Malaysia is slowly gaining more attention, but minimal research has examined how Malaysian men behave and seek treatment. While few studies have investigated men’s treatment-seeking behavior (TSB), those that have been conducted seem to be inconclusive and tend to yield contradictory findings. Objectives: This paper aims to determine the proportion of inappropriate TSB and to explore in-depth treatment-seeking behavior among male civil servants in northeastern Malaysia. Methods: This paper adopted a mixed-methods approach, specifically a concurrent parallel study design. A quantitative study using a self-administered questionnaire was performed to identify the proportion of appropriate and inappropriate TSB among male civil servants in northeastern Malaysia. Concurrently, a qualitative study was conducted involving six focus group discussion sessions, and the results of both parts were integrated to provide a detailed explanation of TSB among the participants. Results: A total of 381 participants were involved in the quantitative study, yielding a response rate of 94.8%; 246 (64.6%) engaged in inappropriate TSB. Some of the reported morbidities among the participants were hypertension (26.5%) and diabetes mellitus (26.2%). From the qualitative study, a main theme related to TSB emerged with several sub-themes, which were health literacy, stage of seeking treatment, preference for alternative treatment, perceived threat of illness, self-treatment, and the influence of family members and others. Conclusions: TSB among male civil servants in northeastern Malaysia is poor, and the factors contributing to it are multidimensional. This study has provided new valuable evidence on men’s TSB in northeastern Malaysia. The findings can be used to facilitate and improve current policies and the implementation of men’s health services throughout the country. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7216173 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-72161732020-05-22 Treatment-Seeking Behavior Among Male Civil Servants in Northeastern Malaysia: A Mixed-Methods Study Arumugam, Pathman Tengku Ismail, Tengku Alina Daud, Aziah Musa, Kamarul Imran A. Hamid, Noor Aman Ismail, Shaiful Bahari Mohd Said, Zakiah Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Background: Men’s health in Malaysia is slowly gaining more attention, but minimal research has examined how Malaysian men behave and seek treatment. While few studies have investigated men’s treatment-seeking behavior (TSB), those that have been conducted seem to be inconclusive and tend to yield contradictory findings. Objectives: This paper aims to determine the proportion of inappropriate TSB and to explore in-depth treatment-seeking behavior among male civil servants in northeastern Malaysia. Methods: This paper adopted a mixed-methods approach, specifically a concurrent parallel study design. A quantitative study using a self-administered questionnaire was performed to identify the proportion of appropriate and inappropriate TSB among male civil servants in northeastern Malaysia. Concurrently, a qualitative study was conducted involving six focus group discussion sessions, and the results of both parts were integrated to provide a detailed explanation of TSB among the participants. Results: A total of 381 participants were involved in the quantitative study, yielding a response rate of 94.8%; 246 (64.6%) engaged in inappropriate TSB. Some of the reported morbidities among the participants were hypertension (26.5%) and diabetes mellitus (26.2%). From the qualitative study, a main theme related to TSB emerged with several sub-themes, which were health literacy, stage of seeking treatment, preference for alternative treatment, perceived threat of illness, self-treatment, and the influence of family members and others. Conclusions: TSB among male civil servants in northeastern Malaysia is poor, and the factors contributing to it are multidimensional. This study has provided new valuable evidence on men’s TSB in northeastern Malaysia. The findings can be used to facilitate and improve current policies and the implementation of men’s health services throughout the country. MDPI 2020-04-15 2020-04 /pmc/articles/PMC7216173/ /pubmed/32326447 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17082713 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Arumugam, Pathman Tengku Ismail, Tengku Alina Daud, Aziah Musa, Kamarul Imran A. Hamid, Noor Aman Ismail, Shaiful Bahari Mohd Said, Zakiah Treatment-Seeking Behavior Among Male Civil Servants in Northeastern Malaysia: A Mixed-Methods Study |
title | Treatment-Seeking Behavior Among Male Civil Servants in Northeastern Malaysia: A Mixed-Methods Study |
title_full | Treatment-Seeking Behavior Among Male Civil Servants in Northeastern Malaysia: A Mixed-Methods Study |
title_fullStr | Treatment-Seeking Behavior Among Male Civil Servants in Northeastern Malaysia: A Mixed-Methods Study |
title_full_unstemmed | Treatment-Seeking Behavior Among Male Civil Servants in Northeastern Malaysia: A Mixed-Methods Study |
title_short | Treatment-Seeking Behavior Among Male Civil Servants in Northeastern Malaysia: A Mixed-Methods Study |
title_sort | treatment-seeking behavior among male civil servants in northeastern malaysia: a mixed-methods study |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7216173/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32326447 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17082713 |
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