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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...

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Autores principales: Arumugam, Pathman, Tengku Ismail, Tengku Alina, Daud, Aziah, Musa, Kamarul Imran, A. Hamid, Noor Aman, Ismail, Shaiful Bahari, Mohd Said, Zakiah
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
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.
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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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