Help‐seeking behaviour for sexual‐health concerns: a qualitative study of men in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Using data collected through semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with adult men in Zimbabwe, this paper explores the decision-making process associated with help-seeking for sexual-health concerns. Help-seeking is located in the complex and dynamic socio-cultural contexts around men's sexualities, masculinities and reproductive health. Pathways to help-seeking include identifying symptoms and the condition, seeking information and advice, and seeking and accessing treatment. Health is grounded in the cultural, spiritual and religious context of Zimbabwean men's lives. Men interpreted sexual-health concerns as due to either natural (disease, psychological stress) or supernatural (displeased ancestral and religious spirits, witchcraft) causes. These interpretations influence their choice of treatment and health service provider. Dominant gender norms of resilience and self-reliance, together with shyness and embarrassment, can delay men's treatment-seeking. The HIV epidemic has made sexual health a more prominent issue in society. However, HIV-related stigma can hinder men's help-seeking for sexual-health concerns (particularly for sexually transmitted infections). Understanding and taking account of these issues in research, health promotion and healthcare services should benefit the sexual health of both men and women.

The Experiences and Complexities of Care-Seeking Behavior of People Living with HIV/AIDS: A Qualitative Study in Nigeria

“…A combined care choice encourages opportunistic infections, ART drug resistance and complications that may result due to lack of drug adherence. This combination of treatments was also observed in health-seeking behavior for sexual concerns in Zimbabwe (Pearson & Makadzange, 2008), as well as in another study involving PLWHA in Ribeirao Preto, Brazil (Neves & Gir, 2006) corroborating findings obtained elsewhere.…”

Factors associated with HIV testing among sexually active South African youth aged 15–24 years

“…Alternatively, men at higher risk of HIV infection may be more likely to seek out testing, although this is not supported in our bivariate analysis of risk perception. The association between testing and increased use of health care facilities in the past 12 months also suggests that males with a history of testing may have greater health concerns, particularly in a public health care context where routine use of health care facilities by men is relatively limited (Galdas, Cheater, & Marshall, 2005;Pearsons & Makadzange, 2008). Our data does not investigate whether HIV testing was voluntary or requested by a health care provider for screening or diagnostic purposes.…”

Superstition, witchcraft and HIV prevention in sub-Saharan Africa: the case of Ghana

“…Regarding witchcraft, Evans-Pritchard's (1937) seminal work among the Azande (who are mostly spread over the Congo, southwestern Sudan and the Central African Republic) continues to inform intellectual debate and discourse around the subject (see Farmer 1990;Yamba 1997;Outwater et al 2001;Ashforth 2002;Yankah 2004;Crentsil 2007;Heike 2007;Pearson and Makadzange 2008). Drawing on Durkheim's idea of societies having their own internal logic and mechanisms of explaining events in their external world, Evans-Pritchard explains that although Africans may be aware of the natural causes of events, those that are deemed unexplainable are attributed to the supernatural.…”