Abstract:
Back ground. Health seeking behavior refers to those activities undertaken by
individuals in response to symptom experience. Timing and the types of treatment for
sick women, children, adolescents, and the old household members are usually
determined by household heads. There is limited information on level of health care
seeking behavior and associated factors among house hold heads. Therefore, assessing
factors associated with health care seeking behavior among house hold heads have
important role to filling the information gap to control inappropriate health care seeking
practice and its outcomes. Objective- To assess health care seeking behavior & its
associated factor among house hold heads in Dale woreda from February to March
2017.Methods - A community based cross- sectional study was conducted in Dale
woreda by using quantitative data collection methods. Stratified random sampling
technique was employed to select household heads from rural and urban areas. A
structured and pre-tested questionnaire was used. Data was entered into a computer using
Epi data 4.13, and analyzed using SPSS for windows version 16.Result - A total of 804
household heads (625 rural and 179 urban) giving a response rate of 95.3 % were
interviewed. Among the study participants male comprises 693(86.2%) and female
comprises 111(13.8%).Majority of the sick individual lies at age group of 18-30 years
which accounts for 372( 46.3%). The overall appropriate health care seeking behavior of
household heads was 585(72.8%) at the study area. Urban residence [AOR=3.32, 95%
CI: 1.94, 5.68], high school and above educational level [AOR=4.26, 95%CI: 2.16, 8.43],
Monthly income >=1170ETB [AOR=2.98, 95%CI: 1.37, 5.68] and Family size <5
[AOR=2.29, 95%CI: 1.64, 3.19] were independent predictor of health care seeking
behavior. Conclusion -Urban residence, high school and above educational level,
monthly income >=1170ETB and family size <5 were independent predictors of health
care seeking behaviors. Recommendation. Different stake holders are recommended on,
scaling up CBHI, implementation on fee waivers, awareness creation on modern health
facility and further research based on residence. Key words- Appropriate health seeking
behavior, inappropriate health seeking behavior, Keble, Urban, Rural
