Health Seeking Behavior of Chronically Ill Patients in Developing Countries: A Review of Literature

Abstract

Background & Objective: In developing countries, allopathic medicine is widely practiced similar to the
advanced countries, however, people also believe in other forms of practices including homeopathic, Unani
Tibb, spiritual healing and Chinese medicine. It is important to understand the health seeking behaviour of
chronically ill patients in order to devise strategies for proving health care in a developing country. The aim of
this review is to describe the current evidence on health seeking behaviour of chronically ill patients in a
developing country.
Methods: We used Google Scholar, PubMed, CINAHL, Web of Science, Embase and Scopus search engines
to search for literature related to health seeking behaviour of chronically ill patients in a developing country
using keyword search and using MeSH. Three authors screened articles independently using title and
abstracts. Eventually we recruited relevant articles for the full text review.
Results: 893 articles were retrieved using our search strategy. Of these 877 articles were excluded since these
were not relevant and in line with our inclusion criteria, leaving 16 articles for full text review. Allopathic
medicine is widely preferred by individuals in urban area, however, with increased duration of disease
especially cancer and arthritis, a considerable section of population seeks help from Hakeem, homeopathic
and spiritual healers.
Conclusion: Allopathic medicine with reliance on modern medical therapies is the most preferred choice in
urban areas of developing countries, however, desperate chronically ill cancer patients, and patients with
arthritis and psoriasis seek treatment from hakeems, homeopathy physicians and spiritual healer, especially
in rural and inaccessible areas.
Keywords: Homeopathy, allopathy, chronically ill patients, treatment preference, health-seeking behavior,
developing country, spiritual healing, Unani Tibb