Factors associated with health-seeking behaviour among informal sector workers in the Kumasi metropolis of Ghana

Figures & data

Table 1. Socio-demographic characteristics of participants

		Health-Seeking Behaviour of workers in the Informal sector
		No = 141		Yes = 71		Total		P-VALUE
		N	%	N	%	N = 212	%
Category of respondent	Master	41	29.1	48	67.6	89	42.0	0.009*
	Apprentice	57	40.4	9	12.7	66	31.1
	Employee	43	30.5	14	19.7	57	26.9
Sex	Male	90	63.8	44	62.0	134	63.2	0.791
	Female	51	36.2	27	38.0	78	36.8
Age	30–49	56	39.7	9	12.7	65	30.7	0.010*
	50 or above	85	60.3	62	87.3	147	69.3
Educational attainment	No formal	26	18.4	15	21.1	41	19.3	0.658
	Basic	28	19.9	18	25.4	46	21.7
	Secondary	70	49.6	32	45.1	102	48.1
	Tertiary	17	12.1	6	8.5	23	10.9
Marital Status	Married	71	50.4	47	66.2	118	55.7	0.040*
	Single	70	49.6	24	33.8	94	44.3
Number of dependents	None	44	31.2	7	9.9	51	24.1	0.030*
	1–4	46	32.6	10	14.1	56	26.4
	5 or more	51	36.2	54	76.1	105	49.5
Religion	Christian	133	94.3	66	93.0	199	93.9	0.695
	Non-Christian	8	5.7	5	7.0	13	6.1
Working experience (in years)	Below 4	7	5.0	1	1.4	8	3.8	0.007*
	5–10	31	22.0	5	7.0	36	17.0
	Above 10	103	73.0	65	91.5	168	79.2
Monthly Income	<1000	134	95.0	58	81.7	192	90.6	0.003*
	>1000	7	5.0	13	18.3	20	9.4
Member of Association	Yes	18	12.8	32	45.1	50	23.6	0.005*
	No	123	87.2	39	54.9	162	76.4
NHIS	Yes	17	12.1	34	47.9	51	24.1	0.023*
	No	124	87.9	37	52.1	161	75.9
Distance	< 4 km	139	98.6	61	85.9	200	94.3	0.011*
	> 4 km	2	1.4	10	14.1	12	5.7
Waiting time	< 1 hour	113	80.1	13	18.3	126	59.4	0.019*
	> 1 hour	28	19.9	58	81.7	86	40.6

Table 2. Self-reported occupational diseases among workers in the informal sector

Variable		Frequency	Percent
Self-reported occupational diseases in 2016	Yes	212	60.6
	No	138	39.4
	Total	350	100
Forms of diseases informal sector workers self-reported	Hypertension	48	22.7
	Diabetes	2	0.9
	Malaria	151	71.2
	Respiratory (chronic cough and asthma)	74	34.9
	Blurred vision	52	24.5
	Diseases of the ear	2	0.9
	Skin diseases	7	3.3
	Musculoskeletal disease	12	5.7
	Urinary tract infection	12	5.7
	Headache	8	3.8
	Total *	368	173.6
Forms of healthcare-seeking behaviour	Hospital	60	28.3
	Clinic	29	13.7
	Chemical/Pharmaceutical shop	170	80.2
	Herbalist	6	2.8
	Spiritualist	1	0.5
	First aid given at workplace	19	9.0
	Home treatment	1	0.5
	Total *	286	134.9

* Multiple response

Table 3. Multivariable regression of the relationship between explanatory variables and health-seeking behaviour of informal sector workers

Variable	COR	95% C.I. for EXP(B)		p-value	AOR	95% C.I. for EXP(B)		p-value
		Lower	Upper			Lower	Upper
Age (years)
30–49 (Ref)	1.00				1.00
50 or above	4.539	2.088	9.864	.038	.905	.238	3.447	.884
Number of dependents
None (Ref)	1.00				1.00
1–4	1.366	.478	3.907	.560	1.987	.376	10.505	.419
5+	6.655	2.748	16.120	.018	8.482	1.265	56.872	.028
Marital Status
Married (Ref)	1.00				1.00
Single	.518	.286	.936	.029	1.652	.534	5.109	.383
Membership with Association
Yes (Ref)	1.00				1.00
No	.178	.090	352	.010	1.909	.555	6.566	.305
Work Experience
4 years or below (Ref)	1.00				1.00
5–10 years	1.129	.113	11.243	.918	1.382	.102	18.720	.808
Above 10 years	4.417	.531	36.735	.169	1.127	.095	13.428	.925
NHIS
Yes (Ref)	1.00				1.00
No	.149	.075	.297	.000	.149	.052	.430	.000
Category of Respondents
Master (Ref)	1.00				1.00
Apprentice	.135	.060	.305	.000	.227	.047	1.109	.067
Employee	.278	.134	.579	.001	.220	.058	.831	.026
Income (GHS)
<1000 (Ref)	1.00				1.00
1000 or more	4.291	1.628	11.308	.003	1.223	.254	5.897	.802
Distance to HF
< 4 km (Ref)	1.00				1.00
4 km or more	11.393	2.424	53.558	.002	7.976	.889	71.549	.064
Waiting time at HF
<1 hour (Ref)	1.00				1.00
>1 hour or more	18.005	8.677	37.363	.000	24.040	8.508	67.927	.000
Model fitting information
Hosmer & Lemeshow chi-square test (significance)	6.043(0.642)
Nagelkerke R^2	0.640
Omnibus Tests of Model Coefficients	131.121(0.005)
Estimate with correct classification	86.3

Italic values indicate the significance of p-value

HF = Health Facility

Ref = Reference Group = 1.00

AOR = Adjusted odds Ratios

Data availability statement

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.