Health seeking behaviour are the choices taken by an individual to maintain or achieve good health. It is a preventive approach which includes vaccinations, regular checkups and screenings without any presenting symptoms.
It might seem that with advancements in healthcare research, greater availability of hospitals and higher levels of literacy, the balance would have shifted towards health seeking behaviour. The result however is contrary. The easy availability of health information, boom of health influencers and wearable gadgets that tell you “you have been sitting for too long” have not changed our basic behaviour towards health and its dimensions.
Our visits to hospitals or clinics are driven by the need for symptom relief rather than health assessment.The emphasis is on curing disease, managing symptoms, and relying on medications or procedures after health has started to decline. A visit to a doctor means either loss of a workday or loss of work hours which becomes a deterrent in preventive consultations. Non compliance of patient for chronic diseases is also an indicator of treatment oriented mindset, many patients with diabetes stop taking medications once they achieve glycemic control, mistaking a managed symptom for a permanent cure. This behaviour makes it difficult in make such people understand the importance of adherence to medication and timely evaluations.
Additionally, our society largely remains unaware of the genetic and age related predispositions of various diseases, so precautionary visits appear unnecessary.
Another important contributing factor to treatment-seeking mindset is the cultural attitude. Many people equate being symptom free with being healthy, as a result conditions like hypertension and diabetes get ignored initially.
Promoting health requires creating awareness among masses, a lifelong commitment, lifestyle modification, which can be difficult to achieve due to work pressures and social obligations.
Seeking treatment offers an immediate and a measurable response to illness.
Awareness regarding risk factors, genetic predisposition, and age-related vulnerabilities is to be ingrained in the society, otherwise the shift from treatment seeking to health seeking society will be hard to achieve.
What do you think are the ways to shift this mindset?
MBH/PS