Healthcare use for diarrhoea and dysentery in actual and hypothetical cases, Nha Trang, Viet Nam.
To better understand healthcare use for diarrhoea and dysentery in Nha Trang, Viet Nam, qualitative interviews with community residents and dysentery case studies were conducted. Findings were supplemented by a quantitative survey which asked respondents which healthcare provider their household members would use for diarrhoea or dysentery. A clear pattern of healthcare-seeking behaviours among 433 respondents emerged. More than half of the respondents self-treated initially. Medication for initial treatment was purchased from a pharmacy or with medication stored at home. Traditional home treatments were also widely used. If no improvement occurred or the symptoms were perceived to be severe, individuals would visit a healthcare facility. Private medical practitioners are playing a steadily increasing role in the Vietnamese healthcare system. Less than a quarter of diarrhoea patients initially used government healthcare providers at commune health centres, polyclinics, and hospitals, which are the only sources of data for routine public-health statistics. Given these healthcare-use patterns, reported rates could significantly underestimate the real disease burden of dysentery and diarrhoea.
University of Maryland Baltimore, School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA. lkaljee@peds.umaryland.edu
Linda
L
Kaljee
Vu Dinh
VD
Thiem
Lorenz
L
von Seidlein
Becky L
BL
Genberg
Do Gia
DG
Canh
Le Huu
le H
Tho
Truong Tan
TT
Minh
Le Thi Kim
le TK
Thoa
John D
JD
Clemens
Dang Duc
DD
Trach
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003695:Delivery of Health Care; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011159:Population Surveillance; D011203:Poverty; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012923:Social Class; D014744:Vietnam / Q000453:epidemiology