Evaluation with structural equation modeling of variables affecting health-seeking behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic in İstanbul, Türkiye.

BACKGROUND/AIM: The relation between the demographic characteristics of individuals and their health-seeking behaviors was presented and the effects of health cognitions, healthy lifestyle behaviors, and coronavirus fear levels on health-seeking behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic were examined.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This descriptive survey study was conducted in the Tuzla District of İstanbul, Türkiye, between March and June 2021.

RESULTS

From analysis of the 391 participants, 60.0% were females, 27.1% were between 31 and 40 years of age, 47.0% were healthcare professionals, and the perceived socioeconomic status of 50.9% was above average. According to the results, the women exhibited more health-seeking behavior than the men (p < 0.05). While the young participants showed more online health-seeking behavior (p < 0.05), the older ones showed greater health responsibility (p < 0.05). The participants with a high level of education exhibited traditional health-seeking behavior (p < 0.05) more than the others, and below-low socioeconomic status increased the COVID-19 fear level 1.94 times (95.0% CI: 1.08-3.48). The Health-Seeking Behavior Scale (HSBS) score was related to the Health Cognitions Questionnaire (HCQ) (p < 0.0001) and the Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors Scale-II (HLBS-II) scores (p = 0.002; Table 3). While the HSBS score was positively associated with an increase in the HCQ score and HLBS-II score (p < 0.05), the HSBS score was not significantly related to the Fear of COVID-19 Scale score (p > 0.05).

CONCLUSION

While fear of COVID-19 was not significantly influential, health cognitions and healthy lifestyle behaviors were the main factors that led to health-seeking behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic.