Socio-environmental Factors Influencing Preferences for Typhoid Fever Treatment Among Secondary School Students in Ikenne, South-West, Nigeria

Abstract

Typhoid fever was estimated to produce 17.8 million cases each year among low-and-middle-income countries of the world. This study aimed to identify the socio-environmental factors that influence care-seeking preferences for typhoid fever treatment among students of Secondary Schools. The study adopted a cross-sectional design guided by behavioural theories that employed quantitative methods of data collection. A multistage sampling technique was used to select five (5) schools from five wards in the study area. A total of 422 students were recruited for this study but only 417 questionnaires were correctly and completely analysed. A self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection and the data was analysed using, descriptive statistics, chart, mean, standard deviation and inferential statistics of correlation, and multiple regression. The respondents’ ages ranged from 10-19 years with a mean of 15.3 ± 1.7 years. Results demonstrated that the socio-environmental factors that influence the respondents’ health-seeking behaviour for typhoid treatment were the decision of parents on the type of treatment they can receive as well as the cost of the treatment The study further revealed that of the respondents who have had typhoid fever in their lifetime, less than half sought treatment in hospitals. This study recommends that good healthcare-seeking behaviour health promotion programmes should be targeted at parents since they are stakeholders in the healthcare-seeking decision-making of adolescents.