Timor-Leste Health Care Seeking Behaviour Study - Secretaria de ...

Treatment for the illness was sought by 76.6% of those who reported a health complaint in the past30 days. The primary reason for not seeking treatment was also ascertained and two reasonsemerged as most important: “not serious enough” (45.6%) and “health facility too far” (36.7%).Other reasons, such as “health workers not present” (3.1%) or “no transport” (2.6%), were lessfrequently cited.The health facility that was most often visited first was a public hospital, followed by a health clinicand a public health post. 9 Cuban doctors were recorded a separate category and 12.8% said thatthey had visited a Cuban doctor first. In the TLSLS only 0.3% reported visiting a traditionalpractitioner first (Table 2).Table 2 - Usage of health providers for health problemsin the past 30 days (TLSLS sample)Type of health care soughtfirstNo. of peoplen (%)Public hospital 1,124 (24.8)Health clinic 655 (14.4)Public health post 637 (14.0)Cuban doctor 582 (12.8)Other nurse 536 (11.8)Community health centre 397 (8.8)Mobile clinic 153 (3.4)Church clinic 116 (2.6)Other doctor 111 (2.5)Midwife 110 (2.4)Cuban nurse 81 (1.8)Other 23 (0.5)Traditional practitioner 14 (0.3)Total 4,539 (100.0)Timor-Leste Health Care Seeking Behaviour Study | 200925The primary reasons reported for visiting a health facility were for a consultation (76.7%) or fortreatment of illness (12.1%). The secondary reasons given were much the same: medications (75.2%)and consultation (12.8%). Visiting for other reasons, such as prenatal checks and immunisation, wasrarely reported (