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KMID : 0861120120160020083
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Korean Journal of Oriental Preventive Medicine
2012 Volume.16 No. 2 p.83 ~ p.94
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A Study on Health Seeking Behaviors of Local Residents -Focused on Shopping Around Phenomenon in Yangsan City, Korea
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Sung Mi-Kyong
Lim Byung-Mook
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Abstract
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Objectives : This study aimed to investigate the use and patterns of health care resources of local patients and to analyze the health seeking behaviors focusing on shopping around phenomenon.
Methods : Questionnaires on the use of health institution were developed and administered to the residents in Yangsan city, Korea. We selected patients who were suffering from any diseases two months and over. Patients’ health seeking behaviors were categorized, and the factors for selecting health institutions in each visiting stages were analyzed.
Results : 139 local patients participated in the survey, and 130 completed questionnaires were analyzed. We found that there were sixty eight different types of medical utilization paths. The most frequent path was ’western clinics Korean medicine hospitals or clinics western clinics’. Only 6 patients started at Korean medicine, however, 16 patients(12.3%) finalized their treatment at Korean medicine hospitals or clinics. In most health seeking stages, patients tended to select health resources by their own decisions, and the geographic factor was the key reason to select health resources.
Conclusions : Patients had not any stable forms to treat with their diseases, and we observed diversified patterns in the health seeking behaviors of patients, a typical shopping around phenomenon.
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KEYWORD
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health seeking behavior, shopping-around, medical utilization, Health care utilization, Korean medicine
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