Factors enhancing health seeking behaviour among rural Maasai in Longido district, Arusha region

Abstract

Background: Health seeking behaviour varies from one individual to another due to different factors contributing to poor health seeking behaviour such as distance to the health facility, availability of health workers and drugs, severity of the diseases and knowledge about the cause of the disease. However, information about health seeking behaviour among rural Maasai communities remains elusive. Therefore, this study exploited a case of Maasai community in Longido district to fill this information gap. Objectives: The main objective of the study was to examine factors enhancing health seeking behaviour among rural Maasai in Longido District. Methodology: The study employed a descriptive cross-sectional design to collect both quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data were analysed using SPSS and Microsoft Excel to generate descriptive information, and qualitative data were analysed through content analysis. Findings: The study revealed that majority (63.3%) of rural Maasai had poor health seeking behaviour. The main reasons observed to improve health seeking behaviour were availability of health workers (36.8%), confidence with care givers (31.6%), availability of medicines (37.9%), and 23.7% mentioned quality of services. However, most respondents (68.4%) reported that belief on causes of the disease has impact on health seeking behaviour, and overall, 73.7% perceived distance from health facility contributes to inappropriate health seeking behaviour among rural Maasai. Conclusion: Health seeking behaviour among rural Maasai is affected by cultural values and traditional practices, which make Maasai people to trust informal treatment over modern system of health care. Recommendations: The local government should construct health facilities and provide adequate health personnel close to residence of rural Maasai, and ensure quality of health services. Awareness raising should be made among rural community so that they can know the importance of seeking health services from formal health system. The local government and other stakeholders should make efforts to establish mobile healthcare to serve the roaming pastoralists like Maasai.