The Health Care Seeking Behavior of Schizophrenic Patients in 6 East Asian Areas

Abstract

The patterns of health care seeking behavior of 1061 schizophrenics and the factors that affect the determination of the patterns were studied in 6 areas of 5 nations in east Asia: Hunan and Sichuan Provinces in China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines. The information was gathered through a structured questionnaire developed by the authors. The subjects generally favored psychiatry-oriented health care, but with frequent interruptions or combination with other types of managements. Most Japanese subjects sought care in western medicine, while subjects from Hunan, Sichuan and Korea alternated between western medicine and magicoreligious therapies or traditional herbal medicine. In the Philippines and Malaysia, the majority of the subjects sought magicoreligious therapies first, then later sought western psychiatric care. The choice of western psychiatric care was mostly influenced by the decision maker's knowledge and interpretation of the patient's illness. In determining the choice of management among various types of non-psychiatric management, cost, location, and societal attitudes played substantial roles as well as knowledge and interpretation. Suggestions and opinions were discussed to improve health care services for schizophrenic patients in each community.

Help-seeking Behaviors of Chinese Patients with Schizophrenia Admitted to a Psychiatric Hospital

“…In our sample, we found that 43.1% admitted they sought help from qigong masters, witch (Li & Phillips, 1990) with a higher percentage (more than 70%) of mentally ill persons consulting witch doctors in rural areas. Our finding is also consistent with another report by Rhi et al (1995) who found that subjects from China and Korea alternated between western medicine and magicoreligious therapies or traditional herbal medicine. We think that a more systematic study should be done in China to assess the beneficial or detrimental effects of these practices on China's health care system.…”

Pathway to psychiatric care in Bali

“…Rhi et al . investigated the help‐seeking behavior of patients with schizophrenia in six areas of five nations in east Asia 5 . They reported that most Japanese subjects sought care in Western medicine, whereas the majority of subjects from the Philippines and Malaysia sought magico‐religious therapies first before seeking care from Western medicine.…”

Factors Associated with Seeking and Using Professional Retirement‐Planning Help

“…The above conclusion emerges in part from research endeavors conduced primarily outside the family and consumer sciences profession. For example, even though help-seeking behavior research within the domain of personal finance is limited, much is already known about the care-seeking and use behavior of patients with mental disorders (Rhi, Ha, & Kim, 1995) and those who seek and use help for depression, alcoholism, gambling addiction, weight disorders, drug addiction, AIDS, cancer, diabetes, delinquency, emotional distress, and forms of chronic disability (e.g., Corney, 1990;Good & Wood, 1995;Phillips & Murrell, 1994;Preston, 1996;Riessman & Carroll, 1995;Wood, Cochran, & Pfefferbaum, 1995). Findings from these nonpersonal finance help-seeking studies suggest that individual demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, psychological, and related behaviors tend to have the most direct influence on help-seeking behavior (Auslander & Litwin, 1990;Kaskutas et al, 1996;Nickerson, Helms, & Terrell, 1994;Phillips & Murrell, 1994;Preston, 1996;Rhi et al, 1995;Shek, 1992).…”