Factors Influencing Cancer Care Health Seeking behavior Among Residents Of Kayindu Parish-Luweero District,Uganda .

Abstract

Introduction: Globally, cancer is the 2nd leading cause of death accounting for an estimated 9.6 million deaths in 2018.These deaths are mostly attributed to the late diagnoses which could as well be as a result of poor health seeking behavior of individuals.

Main objective: To determine the factors influencing the cancer care health seeking behavior of of residents of Kayindu parish in Luweero district.

Methods: This was a cross sectional study of 373 participants of Kayindu parish in Luweero district. Data was analyzed using stata (version 13.1). Data was presented in form of tables. Continuous variables were summarized as median (range) whereas categorical variables as percentages. Chi-square test was used to determine the different factors influencing cancer care health seeking behavior of residents of Kayindu parish in Luweero district. P-values less than 0.05 were

Results: A total of 373 participants were analysed and of these, 60.8% were females. The median age was 41 years (19-90). Only 30 (8%) of the study participants had ever sough cancer care. Our study results showed that education level (p-value=0.009), economic status (p-value=0.047), knowledge of cancer symptoms (p-value<0.001) and those who had ever received cancer information (p-value<0.001) independently influenced cancer care health seeking since their p-values were less than 0.05.were considered statistically significant.

Conclusion: Cancer care health seeking behavior in Kayindu parish is very low and affected by not just one but many factors.

Recommendation: Cancer care services should be extended to residents of Kayindu parish and Luweero district in general.