Influence of sociocultural factors on the health seeking behaviour of patients with bone fracture in Lagos State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the socio-cultural factors influencing health-seeking behaviour (HSB) among bone fracture patients in Lagos State, Nigeria. Literature reviewed indicated that many socio-cultural factors influence health-seeking behaviour of bone fracture patients including the differences in the methods used by Medical orthopaedic Surgeons (MOS) and Traditional bone Setters (TBS). However, this study focused on such socio-cultural factors as education, income, residence (rural or urban) and belief in supernatural causes of accidents. The health belief model and the theory of reasoned action and planned behaviour are the theories adopted for the study. The non-experimental research design was adopted and comprised both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Cross-sectional survey and in-depth interview (IDI) were utilized to gather data. A sample of 300 respondents was drawn among bone fracture patients from orthopaedic hospitals and traditional bone setting (tbs) homes using the multi-stage stratified, random and purposive sampling technique in four LGAs of Lagos state. Data were collected in 2016. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyze the data and test the hypotheses. Chi-square results showed that higher educational attainment, higher monthly income and urban residence are positively related to the utilization of medical orthopaedic services (mos) with (p=0.000), (p=0.006) and p=0.000 respectively, while there is no relationship between belief in supernatural causes of accidents and HSB with (p= 0.098).Strength of association test using eta coefficient (η) yielded a little association between the independent and the dependent variables in the four hypotheses as η = .267, η = .096, η = .238 and η = .222 respectively and in all η < 0.3.Recommendations were made for health policy makers, MOS, TBS and the general public for improved health-seeking behaviour, skills of the practitioners and bone fracture care in general.

Keywords: Bone fracture patients, Health-seeking behaviour, orthopaedic services, bone setting