ABSTRACT

Diabetes Mellitus (DM) have been known to be a public health problem. The concept

of studying health seeking behaviours has evolved with time and today it has become

a tool for understanding how people engage with the health care systems in their

respective socio-cultural, economic and demographic circumstances. A descriptive

cross sectional study of 189 adults was carried out in Obingwa LGA, Abia State.

Questionnaire were used to collect information and respondents interviewed were

above 20 years. The result showed that 62.40% were males and 37.60% were females.

The socioeconomic characteristics showed that (47.10%) of respondents had

secondary education and few (18.0%) had tertiary education while (39.2%) earned

N30,000 to N49,000 per week. All of respondents are aware of diabetes mellitus

(DM). About 30% have poor knowledge about Diabetes and (14.80%) have good

knowledge about the diabetes mellitus (DM). Majority (75.70%) had moderate

health-seeking behaviour towards DM while few (11.10%) have low health seeking

behaviour to diabetes. Using the health belief model to assess the perception of

respondents towards diabetes showed that some (31 .70%) of the respondents

perceived themselves to be highly susceptible to DM while most (68.30%) of the

respondents perceived themselves to have low susceptibility to diabetes Mellitus

(DM). Also, some (30.70%) have high severity towards DM and majority (93.10%)

have less beneficial perception towards diabetes. Majority (75.10%) had no

knowledge if they have been diagnosed and while (2 1.20%) have been diagnosed.

Furthermore, the anthropornetric status of respondents showed that (48.10%) are of

normal weight, and only a few (12.70%) were found to be obese. Using Pearson's

correlation tables, the relationship between respondent's knowledge, health seeking

behavior, perception and anthropometric status revealed that knowledge was

significantly correlated with the health-seeking behavior of respondents but had a

weak positive relationship with perception of the respondents towards susceptibility,

severity, and benefits/barriers of diabetes. Also a significant but weak positive

relationship exist between respondents BMI and health seeking behavior. Using

regression analysis, it was discovered that the relationship between

socio-demographic predictions of health seeking behaviour and health belief towards

diabetes of the respondents showed that respondents with low education perceived

that they are highly susceptible to diabetes and respondents with low income had

higher health seeking behaviour score. Engaging in awareness programmes in form of

seminar/meetings and organizing regular screening for traders and community

members will help to educate them more on diabetes as well as increase their ability

to prevent diabetes through voluntary adoption of healthy lifestyles and positive

health-seeking behaviors thereby ensuring a progressive reduction of diabetes mellitus

cases in Nigeria.