Factors Influencing Chinese People to Delay Seeking Medical Check for Influenza-Like Symptoms

Abstract

The present study examined whether the health belief model (HBM) constructs, personality of anxiety and attitudes toward self-care related to delay in seeking medical check for influenza-like symptoms among 164 Chinese people (79 men and 85 women). The results showed that about 40% of participants would tend to delay for more than three days when they had suspected themselves being infected with influenza. As hypothesized, correlation analysis revealed that the extent of delay was positively correlated to perceived barriers, and negatively correlated to general health value and perceived benefits. What is more, a positive correlation between the extent of delay and anxiety was found. The findings suggest that health education programs and intervention should aim at changing people's general health values as well as specific perception of the benefits and barriers in seeking medical check. Furthermore, health intervention should pay more attention to minimize people's level of anxiety by increasing their cognition and trust in medical check.