Musoke David, Boynton Petra, Butler Ceri, Musoke Miph Boses
Department of Disease Control and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Makerere University College of Health Sciences, Kampala, Uganda.
University College London Medical School, UK.
Afr Health Sci. 2014 Dec;14(4):1046-55. doi: 10.4314/ahs.v14i4.36.
The health seeking behaviour of a community determines how they use health services. Utilisation of health facilities can be influenced by the cost of services, distance to health facilities, cultural beliefs, level of education and health facility inadequacies such as stock-out of drugs.
To assess the health seeking practices and challenges in utilising health facilities in a rural community in Wakiso district, Uganda.
The study was a cross sectional survey that used a structured questionnaire to collect quantitative data among 234 participants. The sample size was obtained using the formula by Leslie Kish.
While 89% of the participants were aware that mobile clinics existed in their community, only 28% had received such services in the past month. The majority of participants (84%) did not know whether community health workers existed in their community. The participants' health seeking behaviour the last time they were sick was associated with age (p = 0.028) and occupation (p = 0.009). The most significant challenges in utilising health services were regular stock-out of drugs, high cost of services and long distance to health facilities.
There is potential to increase access to health care in rural areas by increasing the frequency of mobile clinic services and strengthening the community health worker strategy.
社区的就医行为决定了他们如何使用医疗服务。医疗设施的使用可能会受到服务成本、与医疗设施的距离、文化信仰、教育水平以及医疗设施不足（如药品缺货）等因素的影响。
评估乌干达瓦基索区一个农村社区在利用医疗设施方面的就医行为及挑战。
该研究为横断面调查，使用结构化问卷收集234名参与者的定量数据。样本量采用莱斯利·基什的公式获取。
虽然89%的参与者知道他们社区有流动诊所，但过去一个月中只有28%的人接受过此类服务。大多数参与者（84%）不知道他们社区是否有社区卫生工作者。参与者上次生病时的就医行为与年龄（p = 0.028）和职业（p = 0.009）有关。利用医疗服务面临的最主要挑战是药品经常缺货、服务成本高以及到医疗设施的距离远。
通过增加流动诊所服务的频率和加强社区卫生工作者策略，有可能增加农村地区获得医疗保健的机会。
