https://doi.org/10.4081/hls.2024.11626
0
0
0
0
Smart Citations
0
0
0
0
Citing PublicationsSupportingMentioningContrasting
View Citations

See how this article has been cited at scite.ai

scite shows how a scientific paper has been cited by providing the context of the citation, a classification describing whether it supports, mentions, or contrasts the cited claim, and a label indicating in which section the citation was made.

Healthcare seeking behavior for acute illnesses among adult Aborigine communities (Orang Asli) in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia: a house-to-house survey

Authors

Danaletchumy Ganesan
School of Postgraduate Studies, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur; Division of Community Medicine, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Sumaira Hussain
Division of Community Medicine, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Chandrashekhar T. Sreeramareddy
chandrashekharats@yahoo.com
Division of Community Medicine, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Indigenous people often have poor health due to a lack of access to health care. We studied healthcare-seeking behaviors and associated factors of Orang Asli populations living in remote hilly areas of Peninsular Malaysia. A house-to-house survey was done in 11 of 28 randomly selected villages. A sample of 225 Adults aged 18 years and above were interviewed about healthcare-seeking behavior for an episode of illness 30 days before the survey date. Factors associated with appropriate healthcare-seeking behavior as determined by binary logistic regression analyses. More than a third of the Orang Asli adults (88/225) did not consult any healthcare provider (39%) for which ‘illness does not need treatment’ or ‘not sick enough’ (22%) and no transportation (12%) were the main reasons. Being of older age (aOR 0.95, 95%CI 0.9, 0.98), income higher than 500 Malaysian Ringgits per month (aOR 2.35, 95%CI 1.04, 5.39), perception of illness as ‘severe’(aOR 54.79 95% CI 12.61, 239.9), and closer distance of health facility (aOR 0.86 95% CI 0.81, 0.93) were associated with appropriate healthcare-seeking behavior. Health promotion campaigns are needed to improve awareness about common illnesses and improve care-seeking behavior.

Dimensions

Altmetric

Article has an altmetric score of 1

PlumX Metrics

Downloads

Citations

Crossref
0
Scopus
0
Google Scholar
Europe PMC
Anderson I, Robson B, Connolly M, et al. Indigenous and tribal peoples’ health (The Lowitja Institute Global Collaboration): a population study. Lancet 2016;388:131–57. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(16)32465-5
Baldoni NR, Aquino JA, Alves GCS, et al. Prevalence of overweight and obesity in the adult indigenous population in Brazil: a systematic review with meta-analysis. Diabetes Metab Syndr 2019;13:1705–15. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsx.2019.03.024
Prince SA, McDonnell LA, Turek MA, et al. The state of affairs for cardiovascular health research in Indigenous women in Canada: a scoping review. Can J Cardiol 2018;34:437–49. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cjca.2017.11.019
Jabatan Kemajuan Orang Asli. Data Terbuka Sektor Awam - Laman Web Rasmi Jabatan Kemajuan Orang Asli. 2021. Accessed 1 Apr 2021. Available from: https://www.jakoa.gov.my/data-terbuka-sektor-awam/.
Khor GL, Shariff ZM. Do not neglect the indigenous peoples when reporting health and nutrition issues of the socio-economically disadvantaged populations in Malaysia. BMC Public Health 2019;19:1-5. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-8055-8
Institute for Public Health. National health and Morbidity Survey 2015 vol III: healthcare demand. Kuala Lumpur: Ministry of Health Malaysia, 2015.
Rosnon MR, Gill SS, Badari SAZ, et al. Petunjuk pembangunan komuniti orang Asli: Suatu analisis penggunaan barangan dan perkhidmatan. Geografia Malays J Soc Space 2019;15:132–46. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17576/geo-2019-1501-10
Ithnin M, Juliana N, Effendy NM, Rani MD. Health Seeking Behaviour Among Adult Orang Asli (Indigenous Peoples) From Rural Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia: A Mixed-Methods Study. Malaysian J Public Health Med 2021;28:348-58. DOI: https://doi.org/10.37268/mjphm/vol.21/no.2/art.1045
Cheng YX, Chong CP, Kiew CF, Bahari MB. An assessment of health and social-economic status among Lanoh ethnic sub-group of Orang Asli (Indigenous peoples) in Air Bah I Village, State of Perak, Malaysia. J Appl Pharmaceut Sci 2014;30:032-7. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7324/JAPS.2014.401006
MacKian S. A review of health seeking behaviour: problems and prospects. Health Systems Development Programme. 2003.
Shah NM, Rus RC, Mustapha R, et al. The Orang Asli profile in peninsular Malaysia: Background & Challenges. Int J Acad Res Business Soc Sci 2018;8:1157–64. DOI: https://doi.org/10.6007/IJARBSS/v8-i7/4563
Yew VW, Sia MK, Lam KC, et al. Education and awareness of modern health care amongst aboriginal people: The case of the Jakuns of Peninsular Malaysia. GMJSS 2015;11:79-85. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/mre.11.2.42629148
Gandhi S, Verma VR, Dash U. Health seeking behaviour among particularly vulnerable tribal groups: A case study of Nilgiris. J Public Health Epidemiol 2017;30:74-83. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5897/JPHE2017.0911
Podder D, Dasgupta A, Dobe M, et al. Health care seeking behavior in a scheduled tribe community in India: A mixed methods research using the Framework of Andersen’s behavioral model. Asia Pac J Public Health 2021;33:369-77. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1010539521993695
Venkatramana P, Latheef SA. Health-seeking behavior among tribes of India. Studies of Tribes and Tribals 2019;17:1-7. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31901/24566799.2019/17-1-2.413
Bussalleu A, Pizango P, King N, et al. Kaniuwatewara (when we get sick): understanding health-seeking behaviours among the Shawi of the Peruvian Amazon. BMC Public Health 2021;21:1-3. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-11574-2
Shaikh BT. Understanding social determinants of health seeking behaviours, providing a rational framework for health policy and systems development. J Pak Med Assoc 2008;58:33.
Mahmud MH, Baharudin UM, Md Isa Z. Diseases among Orang Asli community in Malaysia: a systematic review. BMC Public Health 2022;22:2090. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-14449-2

How to Cite

Ganesan, D., Hussain, S., & Sreeramareddy, C. T. (2024). Healthcare seeking behavior for acute illnesses among adult Aborigine communities (Orang Asli) in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia: a house-to-house survey. Healthcare in Low-Resource Settings, 12(2). https://doi.org/10.4081/hls.2024.11626
Copyright (c) 2024 the Author(s) Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.