Health-care-seeking behaviour in patients with hypertension: experience from a dedicated hypertension centre in Bangladesh

Abstract

Objective: The study aimed to assess health-seeking behaviour (HSB) and associated factors among hypertensive patients in Bangladesh.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in the Hypertension & Research Centre, Rangpur, Bangladesh, between January 2022 and June 2022. A total of 497 hypertensive adults were recruited consecutively. A pre-tested structured questionnaire was deployed by the research team for data collection. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to explore the predictors of HSB.Results: The mean age of the hypertensive patients was 52 ± 11 (SD) years. Most of them were aged between 51 and 60 years (33%), female (55%), came from rural areas (57%), and belonged to middle socioeconomic class (68%). One-fourth of the patients (27%) had chosen informal healthcare providers for their first consultation. Fear of stroke (244, 45%), headache (170, 36%), and neck pain (81, 17%) were the three most common compelling causes of their visit to the hypertension centre. Age (aOR 0.78, 95% CI 0.68 − 0.89), male sex (aOR: 1.79, 95% CI 1.05 − 3.10), living in semi-urban (aOR 4.68, 95% CI 1.45 − 15.10) and rural area (aOR 1.68, 95% CI 1.01 − 2.80), farmers as occupation (aOR: 3.24, 95%CI: 1.31 − 8.06) and belonging to lower social economic class (aOR 4.24, 95% CI 1.68 − 10.69) were predictors of visiting informal providers of hypertensive patient. One-fourth of the hypertensive patients received consultation from informal healthcare providers.Conclusions: Raising awareness among patients and proper referral to specialised hypertension centres could promulgate the patients towards appropriate behaviour.

Keywords:

• Health seeking behaviour
• hypertension
• informal health providers
• Bangladesh

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their sincere gratitude to Tropical disease and health research center, Dhaka, Bangladesh (www.tdhrc.og) for their help in whole project. Additionally, thanks to all the patients of the study participants and the staff engaged in the study.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Approval of the study protocol was obtained from the ethical committee of Dhaka Medical College (ERC-DMC/ECC/20/77). Informed written consent was obtained from each participant before enrolment.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Author contributions

Conceptualization, M.J.H., and J.F.; formal analysis, M.J.H., J.H., and M.A.S.K.; investigation, M.J.H., M.Z.H., M.A.H., M.A.B., P.S., M.A., T.T., J.F., P.Z., M.A.R., and M.A.S.K.; methodology, M.J.H., M.Z.H., M.A.H., M.A.B., P.S., M.A., T.T., J.F., P.Z., M.A.R., and M.A.S.K.; resources, M.J.H., M.Z.H., M.A.H., M.A.B., P.S., M.A., T.T., J.F., P.Z., M.A.R., and M.A.S.K.; supervision, M.J.H., M.Z.H. and M.D.H.H.; and writing – original draft, M.A.S.K., J.F., M.J.H., M.D.H.H. and K.D.; writing – review & editing, M.J.H., M.Z.H., M.A.H., M.A.B., P.S., M.A., T.T., J.F., P.Z., M.A.R., M.A.S.K. K.D. and M.D.H.H.; Critical review and editing, K.D. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Availability of data and materials

Patient-level data will be available on request from the corresponding author.