Healthcare seeking behaviour during illness among older adults in Ghana: does food security status matter?

BMC Geriatrics

Research

Daniel Amoak¹  Williams Agyemang-Duah²  Roger Antabe³  Joseph Asumah Braimah³  Yujiro Sano⁴  Ebenezer Dassah⁵ 

[1] Department of Geography and Environment, Western University, London, Canada;Department of Geography and Planning, Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada;Department of Health and Society, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, Canada;Department of Sociology, Nipissing University, North Bay, Canada;School of Public Health, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana;

关键词: Ghana;    Older adults;    Healthcare seeking behaviour;    Food security;    Multivariable analysis;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12877-023-04023-9

 received in 2023-02-12, accepted in 2023-05-06,  发布年份 2023

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundGhana’s growing older adult population raises critical questions regarding healthcare for these older adults. At the same time, food insecurity is high among older adults in Ghana. This underscores the need to investigate the issues of food security and healthcare seeking behaviour among older adults. However, research on the association between food security status and healthcare seeking behaviour among older adults is scant in the Ghanaian context. In this study, we advance the social gerontology literature by examining the association between food security status and healthcare seeking behaviors among older adults.MethodsUsing a multi-stage sampling framework, we collected data from a representative sample of older adults across three regions in Ghana. Data were analyzed using logistic regression technique. We determined the significance of the test at a probability value of 0.05 or less.ResultsOver two-thirds (69%) of respondents did not seek care during their last illness. Additionally, 36% of respondents were severely food insecure, 21% were moderately food insecure, 7% were mildly food insecure, and 36% were food secure. After controlling for theoretically relevant variables, our multivariable analysis revealed a statistically significant association between food security status and healthcare seeking behaviors with older people who are food secure (OR = 1.80, p < 0.01) and mildly food insecure (OR = 1.89, p < 0.05) being more likely to seek healthcare compared with their counterparts who are food insecure.ConclusionOur findings highlight the need for sustainable intervention programs to improve food access and health service use among older adults in Ghana and similar contexts.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2023