Socio-demographic characteristics:
Seven hundred fifty (95.8%) participants, of which 189(25%) urban and 561(75%) rural participated in the interview. Males accounted for 472(62.9%) and about 446(59.5%) of the respondents were farmers. About 452 (60.3%) of households had family size greater than four. Only 252 (33.6%) of households have Community health insurance and majority of the respondents are Oromo 704(93.8%).
Health care seeking behavior:
Among all respondents, 495(66%) reported having morbidity of which 335 (67.67%) of the illness was perceived to be acute illness. Among those who reported morbidity, perceived severity of illness was 351(70.9.8%). Distance from modern health facility (Public health center, private clinic &health post) is less than 10 km far from all households. The general level of health care seeking behavior was 78.6%. About 66% of the respondents sought care from government facilities, the main type of facility being health center which was sought by about 52% of all those sought care. Only 70% of those who sought care reported immediate seeking of care after the perception of the illness.
Factors associated with health care seeking behaviors of households:
Result of bivariate analysis to identify the candidate variables for multinomial logistic regression analysis is indicated below (Table 1).
From adjusted model in multinomial logistic regression analysis below (Table 2), sex, residence, family size, educational status, income, disease condition, Perceived severity andaccess to needed health information were found to be significant factors for seeking healthcare of the respondents in multiple logistic regression analysis. Accordingly, the odds of health seeking behavior among male participants was about 5.7 times higher than female participants (AOR = 5.7, 95% CI: 3.0, 11.0) & the odds of healthcare seeking behavior among urban households was about 9.5 times greater than healthcare seeking behavior of rural households (AOR, 9.5; 95% CI, 3.6, 25.5). Healthcare seeking behavior among households with < = 4 family sizes were approximately 6 times greater than households with >4 family sizes (AOR = 5.8, 95% CI: 2.6, 12.8). Households with monthly income above 1,170 birr were about 9 times more likely to seek healthcare as compared to those who earn less than 1,170 (AOR = 8.97, 95% CI: 4.5, 17.7). Healthcare seeking behavior was approximately 2.8 times greater among household having secondary education & 8.5 times greater among households graduated from College and above when compared with illiterate ones (AOR = 2.8, 95% CI: 1.02, 7.5) & AOR = 8.5, 95% CI: 1.9, 38.9 respectively). The odds of health seeking behavior among those who perceived serious illness (Perceived severity) was about 3 times higher (AOR, 3.3; 95%CI, 1.7, 6.4) than those who didn’t. Households who perceived illness (disease condition) as acute were about 2.8 (AOR = 2.8, 95% CI, 1.5, 5.2) times more likely to seek healthcare than those who perceived chronic illness. Households who have access to needed health information of healthcare for perceived illness were about 3.7 time more likely to seek healthcare than those who had no access to needed health information of healthcare (AOR = 3.7, 95% CI, 1.9, 7.4). (Table 2).