Healthcare preferences in the control of the COVID-19 pandemic in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria
1 School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria.
2 Department of Preventive Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, College of Health Sciences, University of Port Harcourt, Port
Harcourt, Rivers State. Nigeria.
3 School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria.
4 Department of Public Health, Ministry of Health, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria.
5 Department of Epidemiology, University of Calabar, Cross-River State, Nigeria.
Research Article
GSC Advanced Research and Reviews, 2023, 16(02), 141–144.
Article DOI: 10.30574/gscarr.2023.16.2.0338
Publication history:
Received on 03 July 2023; revised on 18 August 2023; accepted on 21 August 2023
Abstract:
Background: COVID-19 started with the diagnosis of a patient with pneumonia of unknown origin (PUO) at Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan, China, on December 31, 2019. Usually, those infected are treated with preventive and orthodox measures based on WHO recommendations; but is it possible that some persons may prefer additional treatment modalities based on their faith/spirituality and home remedies in addition to those?
This study assessed the individual’s healthcare preferences in the control of COVID-19.
Methodology: Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data on individuals’ healthcare preferences. Data were analyzed using IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25. Categorical data and numerical data were summarized using frequencies, mean, standard deviation, and median. A chi-square test was done to determine Statistical significance set at p < 0.05. Multinomial statistics was done to determine factors associated with care preference
Results: 400 participants were recruited with an M: F of 1:1.5. Two-fifths were in the third decade of life and had tertiary education. The mean age was 29.48±10.32 years. 379(94.7%) of participants wanted to be treated by orthodox medicine if infected by COVID-19, however, 30.8% and 39.2% would in addition prefer Trado-medical agents like garlic, ginger, steam inhalation and faith (fasting, praying, going to mosque/church and paying of zakat and tithe) respectively. There were significant associations between participants’ professions (p=0.03), age group(p=0.04), education (p=<0.0001), and care preference when infected with COVID-19.
Conclusion: 3 out of 10 participants would prefer to add tradomedical agents (home remedies) and 2 out of 5 would prefer to use their faith in addition to orthodox management of COVID-19 if infected.
Keywords:
Care preference; COVID-19; Faith; Home remedies; Individuals
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Copyright © 2023 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Liscense 4.0
