Al-Mandhari Ahmed, Al-Adawi Samir, Al-Zakwani Ibrahim, Al-Shafaee Mohammed, Eloul Liyam
Departments of Family Medicine & Public Health and.
Sultan Qaboos Univ Med J. 2008 Nov;8(3):310-8.
Despite its impact on health policy, the relationship between geographical proximity and health care seeking has received scant attention in the medical literature. This paper aims to evaluate the relationship between geographic proximity and health care usage behaviour among patients seeking medical consultation in the northern region of Oman.
During 2006-2007, data was collected via face-to-face interviews among 428 randomized patients seeking medical consultation in various primary health care centres in the northern region of Oman. The association between geographical proximity as a reason to seek health care and other predictors was also analysed using multivariable logistic regression.
The data suggest that preference for geographical proximity as a reason for seeking health care is strongly associated with marital status, previous exposure to traditional medicine and health education, as well as history of immunisation.
This finding supports the view from elsewhere that geographical proximity remains a strong catalyst for care seeking in Oman. The psychosocial factors affecting care seeking are discussed.
尽管地理距离对卫生政策有影响，但地理距离与寻求医疗服务之间的关系在医学文献中很少受到关注。本文旨在评估阿曼北部地区寻求医疗咨询的患者中地理距离与医疗服务使用行为之间的关系。
2006年至2007年期间，通过对阿曼北部地区各初级卫生保健中心428名随机抽取的寻求医疗咨询的患者进行面对面访谈收集数据。还使用多变量逻辑回归分析了将地理距离作为寻求医疗服务的原因与其他预测因素之间的关联。
数据表明，将地理距离作为寻求医疗服务的原因的偏好与婚姻状况、以前接触传统医学和健康教育以及免疫史密切相关。
这一发现支持了其他地方的观点，即地理距离仍然是阿曼寻求医疗服务的一个强大催化剂。文中讨论了影响寻求医疗服务的社会心理因素。
