Abstract:

Health is vital to human living. Poor health in rural areas is prevalent due to various issues impacting health status and service efficacy, with health service functionality measured by affordability and accessibility. Structured questionnaires and oral interviews were employed to investigate the healthcare-seeking behavior of residents of Otuoke community in Ogbia Local Government Area, Bayelsa State. The study established a low response of residents of Otuoke community to biomedical health care (12.8%). Cost (31.4%) was the main limiting factor to seeking health care by the residents. Other factors implicated in influencing healthcare-seeking behaviour include proximity, poor attitude of health care workers, poor medical services and long waiting time in assessing biomedical health care. Most of the respondents resorted to self-examination and self-medication to save cost and time, thereby utilizing the services of local chemists. Traditional healthcare practices still hold sway and gain more relevance based on the fact that it is easily accessible, acceptable and affordable to meet the rural dwellers' expectations compared to biomedical medicine. The study also identified perceived barriers to patronage of the Federal University Otuoke health facility by the students as mainly due to the unavailability of drugs and long waiting time to access medical care. Health education should be deployed to enlighten the residents on rational use of medications and access to treatment at healthcare facilities rather than self-examination and self-medication. University administration should develop strategies to enhance students’ accessibility to the university’s health care services and address the existing barriers.