Health Seeking Behaviour among Medical Students in a Teaching Hospital of Nepal: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: Medical students are more prone to suffer from various physiological and psychologicalproblems but rather than seeking for formal health care, they tend to do informal consultation andoften practice self medication. Thus, this study aimed to find out the health seeking behavior ofmedical students.
 Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was done among first and second year medicalstudents of a teaching hospital from September to November 2019 after taking ethical approvalfrom Institutional Review Committe. Total of 235 students were included in the study and selfadministered questionnaire was used. Data entry and analysis was done using Statistical Packagefor Social Sciences version 20.0.
 Results: Among 235 students who participated in the study, 172 (73%) reported having healthproblems in the last 12 months, and fever and headache were commonly reported by 21 (13%) and 18(50%) students, respectively. Total of 112 (65%) students visited hospital/clinic for health problemsand reason given for not visiting hospital/clinic was 12 (28%) thinking that the problem was minor.University hospital was the most preferred place 189 (80%) during health problem and parents werethe first people for consultation 116 (49%). Mean duration of absenteeism was 2.17±4.1 days and 167(88%) visited hospital more than five times.
 Conclusions: Health problems were common among students and most of them required multiplehospital visits. Many students seeked for health from hospital/ clinic but informal consultationswere also seen.

Factors affecting the utilization of mental health services among undergraduate students in a Nigerian University

“…A larger proportion of the participants in this study showed good health - seeking behavior, similar to findings by Bhandari and Chataut (2020) , where 75% of medical students showed good health - seeking behavior towards utilization of mental health services. The positive health - seeking behavior of the study participants was reflected in their positive attitude on mental health services.…”

Healthcare-seeking of medical students: the effect of socio-demographic factors, health behaviour and health status – a cross-sectional study in Hungary

“…Our study showed that both Hungarian and international medical students who had chronic illnesses had the possibility to visit the GP. This finding was supported by a study which stated that students had symptoms of chronic diseases, such as respiratory, gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal symptoms or miscellaneous would come to visit the GP [ 29 ]. The same thing has also been described by previous studies which stated that health seeking behaviour among medical students might be influenced by the presence or absence of chronic diseases the students had [ 30 ].…”

“…The same opinion has been expressed in a study that students tend to avoid or delay disclosure, and they seek help because of the perceived risk to their future [ 6 , 16 ]. Meanwhile, in another study, it has been suggested that the reason for coming to professional healthcare was not because it would hinder the students’ studies or reduce their achievement because of the disease they were having [ 4 ], but they were reluctant to come to the GP for reasons of the type and level of the disease they were experiencing [ 20 , 29 ].…”

Exposure to medical education and its role in Covid19 pandemic associated anxiety among medical students in South Kerala

“…Fear of contracting the infection, stigma, lockdown restrictions, and self medication can be the reasons for this reduction. 19 This reduction in health seeking behavior is alarming. This challenge can be addressed through prioritizing and facilitating the concept of tele-health that can improve the provision of health services There are numerous mental health problems including depression other than anxiety which were not addressed here.…”