joukar F, Asgharnezhad M, Maroufizadeh S, Yeganeh S, Aghajani Nargessi D, Zohrehvand B, et al . Treatment Seeking Behavior for COVID-19 Symptoms Among Northern Iranian Population: A Cross-sectional Study. CJHR 2024; 9 (2) :95-104
URL:
http://cjhr.gums.ac.ir/article-1-357-en.html
Farahnaz Joukar1 ,
Mehrnaz Asgharnezhad1 ,
Saman Maroufizadeh2 ,
Sara Yeganeh1 ,
Dorrin Aghajani Nargessi3 ,
Behzad Zohrehvand4 ,
Mahsa Safizadeh1 ,
Alireza Gholizadeh5 ,
Zahra Rajabian Moghaddam6 ,
Fariborz Mansour-Ghanaei1 ,
Mohammadreza Naghipour * 7
1- Gastrointestinal and Liver Diseases Research Center, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran
2- Department of Biostatistics, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran
3- Department of Emergency Medicine, School of Medicine Razi Hospital, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran.
4- Department of Emergency Medicine, School of Medicine Razi Hospital, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran
5- School of Medicine Heshmat Hospital, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran
6- School of Medicine Razi Hospital, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran
7- Gastrointestinal and Liver Diseases Research Center, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran , naghi@gums.ac.ir
Abstract: (308 Views)
Objective: This study was conducted to investigate the treatment seeking behavior for COVID-19 symptoms among northern Iranian population and its related factors.
Materials and Methods: This hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate the treatment seeking behavior for COVID-19 symptoms and its related factors in 602 confirmed COVID-19 cases for a period of 2 months between March and May 2020 in Guilan at the onset of the corona epidemic in Iran.
Results: Professional treatment-seeking was observed in 18.6% of patients and most of patient reported home remedies (50.3%) and self-medication (31.1%) as first reaction to COVID-19 symptoms. The most prevalent symptoms of COVID-19 in the study population were anosmia (98.3%) and fever (70.1%). The multivariate logistic regression analyses revealed that patients with breathing difficulties symptom and history of respiratory disease had greater odds professional treatment of seeking respectively (adjusted odds ratio (OR) =1.6, P=0.03, (OR) =3.3, P =0.001).
Conclusion: Roughly half of symptomatic COVID-19 patient reported home remedies as first treatment-seeking behaviors and only breathing difficulties symptom and past history of respiratory disease were identified as an independent predictor of professional treatment–seeking. We will certainly face pandemics in the future. However, the world must obviously prepare for future pandemics in light of the lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic. We hope that the results of this study can be a lesson for the future.
Article Type:
Original Contributions |
Subject:
Health Management Received: 2023/11/10 | Accepted: 2024/02/28 | Published: 2024/04/1