Dear pasand,

Health seeking behaviour is a term exclusively to be used in terms to explain the pattern of health care utilization among any population group. However, in many a studies it has also been followed that help seeking behaviour is equivalent to health seeking behaviour without prior justification or clarity, with an implied concept in the minds of researcher being that, since the study itself is in the circumference of the healthcare, it undoubtedly relates to health seeking, so no matter what term they use (Help seeking or health seeking behaviour), they intend to mean the same. 

I would also like to compliment the suggestion by Niina that you give an operative definition to what health seeking behaviour means in your research per se. thereby you can always keep yourself away from the ambiguity. 

I also would go along with Salih Al Hasnawi that you refer more literature and conclude for yourself based on the need for your project.

Hi Pasand,

I can see how this could be confusing. Unfortunately, the use of multiple, nearly identical terms occurs quite frequently in research. I've run into the same issue myself many times when writing proposals, etc. I would suggest that you pick a term that works best for your subject population/hypotheses and then define it in your writing. You can also cite that people have used other terms as well and provide those other terms. Then in the rest of your research/writing simply stick with the one term that you selected. I think that in your case, you can argue for the term meaning either healthy or ill people seeking help/health information... perhaps you can share what your research topic is, this could help "us" chime in with which term makes sense?

Sincerely,

Niina

I prefer that your good self review more literature to reach a satisfactory definition of the terms for your paper , my self , I understand that health  seeking behavior is preventive term , meaning  practice exercise , healthy diet  ,  stop smirking while help seeking behvoiure 

Dear pasand,

Health seeking behaviour is a term exclusively to be used in terms to explain the pattern of health care utilization among any population group. However, in many a studies it has also been followed that help seeking behaviour is equivalent to health seeking behaviour without prior justification or clarity, with an implied concept in the minds of researcher being that, since the study itself is in the circumference of the healthcare, it undoubtedly relates to health seeking, so no matter what term they use (Help seeking or health seeking behaviour), they intend to mean the same. 

I would also like to compliment the suggestion by Niina that you give an operative definition to what health seeking behaviour means in your research per se. thereby you can always keep yourself away from the ambiguity. 

I also would go along with Salih Al Hasnawi that you refer more literature and conclude for yourself based on the need for your project.

I think it is very clear. Health seeking is about a person wants to be healthy and seeking care or information to maintain it. On the other hand a person who is in need of help seek help. I think this confusion arise because the literature on Social Work talks more about help seeking, while other literature such as public health and sociology talks about health seeking. The training of social work is about helping people with what they want. It is not the objective of public health. Public Health is more about prevention. That is why it is health seeking. It also also suggests one thing. Due to heavy burden of cardiac diseases, now, the cardiologists tending to move from the treatment to prevention.If you are looking at treatment then it is help and if it is prevention then health seeking. 

'Seeking' implies knowledge/awareness of the service  that one  wants to have and also implies ownership  and the right to demand it be it in health or eduction or any other. 'Help' implies to be at the mercy of  somebody who can help. It dos not show that the helper has the  obligation to offer  the help requested. Thus, it dose not show ownership and the right to demand the service needed.

We educate people of the benefits of modern heath services and how they can be participants in producing 'good health' as a matter of right and being responsible  to one's healthy; not asking for help when the illness reaches a critical stage. We teach , for example, mothers to be prepared  for birth and  complications so that they attend all maternal cares that lead to safe delivery in health institutions. Both mothers and institutions have responsibilities and are obliged to prevent maternal and neonatal death. Knowledge when used to guide social practice enhances social responsibility be it health, education or otherwise of stakeholders in the social practice. In health 'seeking' should  not be interchangeably used with 'help', I think.

I say thanks to all the scholars who have provided their explanatory answers. While reading the text book of medical sociology by William Cockerham, research articles by Kasl and Cobb, David mechanic, and by some public health experts such as Dr Baber T Sahikh, I have come to understand that basically there are two major divisions: Health behavior and Illness Behavior. medical Sociologists define health behavior as activity of healthy people to maintain their health and avoid illness, whereas illness behavior isactivity of people who perceive to be ill and want to recover from it. healthy lifestyles, preventive care, immunizations, etc are all activities to maintain health. whereas, Illness behavior includes going to physicians for medical checkups, utilizing formal and informal health services, responding to symptoms etc. but public health experts have used health-seeking behavior for both of the health as well as illness behavior. now I am writing about my PhD research project. i am interested in doing research on child health problems which are severely affecting the local people of Thar desert of Pakistan. under-5 mortality is high and the trend is increasing day by day due to many child diseases fueled by drought and famine situation. Government claims that people are not utilizing child health services but the local people held government responsible for poor health system. it looks into the structure-agency debate. I want to look at preventive behavior (going for immunization and food supplements), when children become sick, what do their families do? where do they seek care? i want to explore what are the social determinants in this regard. Now my question is again: is the term Health-seeking behavior appropriate to be used in my research? 

Absolutely pasand,

No matter what type of service they seek for, whether preventive or curative services, health seeking behaviour encompasses it all. I do feel that using this term would only help you reach the readers with explicit clarity and avoid ambiguity.

I agree with my colleagues that health seeking is the correct phrase to be used in public health  research . Children are under the guardianship of parents. Their parents have to be empowered to seek health care service not only for themselves but for  members of their  families and communities as well. Strengthening health system  is the responsibility of all stakeholders--government, community, no government payers be local or partners ( bilateral, multilateral). Government has to take leadership of course.  As I mentioned in my earlier answer to your question, accessing to health services  should not be seen as charitable thing, it is a matter of right, be it in prevention or cure. WHO is speaking of universal access to all health services including access to ART.

You need to think about the literature you have read and come to a conclusion that you will be able to defend to those who may not agree with you.  When you defend your dissertation you will not be able to use as a defense that the people who answered your question on ResearchGate believed it to be the correct term.  As part of your defining the term in your dissertation you should explain why you believe 1) that either term would be suitable and arbitrarily chose one, or 2) why one term is better suited for labeling your research, or 3) why one term describes your research and the other does not.

I think the answer is to first analyze the word "health" in its biblical and Christian usage means salvation, to be saved man need help, to be healthy man also need help, the pastor is a helper of health for his sheep, he gives them water their sheep, he gives help, is it helper.

Therefore health is the helper and the helped seeking health which Christian salvation of his soul.

From here, is that the discipline of nursing intended that nurses help build relationships with patients, clients or persons under their care.

So someone can say the same with the following statements; "I received help", "I received health", "I received salvation."

Best Regards

Luis

(from  Chile)

The notion of health that Luis mentioned  has influenced  the thinking of people for generations and made them think that health is what God gives  and also takes it away from a person. In effect people felt that they have no responsibility to account with regards to their health. Such people even never  considered of keeping themselves healthy by practicing basic hygiene. Viral and bacterial diseases were assumed to be diseases considered by spirits  for angering God and the like. Birth related complications were considered in the same manner.  Nurses were considered as helpers because they patients relate them to God so also spiritual healers. But is clear that we cannot build public health on such notions and superstitions. Our scientific understanding of public health is helping us deal with preventing and curing illnesses, raising survival age above 80, on the average.

Health seeking behavior is a general positive behaviour whereas help-seeking behaviour is reactive and problem oriented.

Correct Charles. It also implies the thinking underpinning public health policy in a given context. If governments in power and the health institution they put in place  assume the identity of  health care givers, it is likely that the help seeking behavior becomes dominant. If on the other hand the policy is based on the assumption that  it is the responsibility and duty of government and its institutions to make health care available to the public, and the pubic has the right to access public health care, then the health seeking behavior becomes a dominant behavior of communities. It is however sad to see  political parties competing for power use discourses as if they have the magic power to ensure access to quality  health care for voters.

When I try to understand these two terms , literature showed that these are interchangeable terms , but as I studied till date health seeking behavior , people sought treatment when they have any health problem i.e., utilization of health services this behavior depends upon many socio cultural and economic factors , which from individual level as gender related, social status in the society , health services are available nearby or not . In case of women, it mainly depends on the presence of female health care providers in the institution. In most of the public health research, the term health seeking behavior is but it is depending upon what your research question is?

Thank you all for very useful answers.

From your answers and literature review on my part, I have come to conclusion that the term Health SB is used variably with respect to the disciplines of medical sociology and public health. Now I have developed clearer understanding of the term Help-seeking behavior, but still confused over the other term/ concept of Health-sseking behavior.  In medical sociology literature, the use of term Health SB is very rare, on contrary, in public health it is frequently used. In medical sociology there are two broader sub-fields: Health Behavior and Illness Behavior. so my revised question now is : under which field does Health-seeking behavior come? Does it come under the umbrella of Health behavior or that of Illness behavior?  

I am eager to read your more critical and answers.

Regards.

It is under Health behavior. In fact health behavior is more broad; it involves any action taken to preserve, attain or regain health and to prevent illnesses. Illness being considered as an action taken to regain health depending on the definition given to symptoms, it thus falls under health behavior (HB takes care of illness and lack of illness related behaviors)

Help seeking behaviour and Health seeking behaviour although we feel they are interchngable. Health seeking behaviour is a sub-set of help seeking behaviour. In help seeking behaviour variety of social determinants are invovled. But in health seeking behaviour -- people can simultaneously use various therapies particularly in developing countries and shopping for diagnosis for stigma related diseases to confirm the lebeling of diagnosis. 

Please read WHO review on the link  http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2007/9789241595711_eng.pdf 

I will say health seeking is more prefer to help seeking in the sense that help seeking for sick children by their parent(s) may include seeking help outside the healthcare centres/facilities around them that is, go for traditional help or others. Since your research will focus on use of health care centers by their parent(s). in addition, according to El Kahi et al 2012, and World Health Organization 2007 stated that "Help-seeking behaviour is defined as any action or activity carried out by person who perceives herself or himself as needing personal, psychological, affective assistance or health or social services, from formal (such as clinic services, counsellors, psychologists, medical staff, traditional healers, religious leaders) or informal services (family, peers or kinship groups and/or other adults in the community) with the purpose of meeting this need in a positive way". The Health seeking behaviour will be for those that needs to improve or maintain their health status or to have more information on health conditions or healthy lifestyles.

Dear Pasand,

"Health-seeking behaviour taken in its literal sense means to seek health. The Nursing Outcomes Classification defines health-seeking behaviour as personal actions to promote optimum wellness, recovery and rehabilitation. This definition appears to propose that health-seeking behaviour can occur with or without a health problem and covers the spectrum from potential to actual health problem. Therefore, contained within the concept of health-seeking behaviour is the aspect of health promotion that might be aimed at preventing a disease and includes behaviour such as lifestyle changes. Thus, health-seeking behaviour can occur in an asymptomatic state, which is distinct from help-seeking that is ‘problem focused’. The above definition also suggests that health-seeking behaviour can occur devoid of external assistance as opposed to help-seeking behaviour, which involves inter- personal interaction with a helper. Thus, health-seeking

behaviour can be distinguished from help-seeking behaviour on two levels: health seeking can occur for both an actual or a potential problem and health seeking can also occur independent of a third party." Cornally, N., & Mccarthy, G. (2011). Help-seeking behaviour: A concept analysis. International Journal of Nursing Practice, 17(3), 280–288. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1440-172X.2011.01936.x

Article Help-seeking behaviour: A concept analysis

Hi Pasand,

Both terms are not interchangeable by any means even though they have something in common.

Your first definition covers Health-Seeking but not Help-Seeking. Help-Seeking covers Health-Seeking somewhat, but Health-Seeking is just a small part of all Help-Seeking. Wherever you found that it is interchangeable, forget it or maybe better write them a mail to stop spreading such nonsense and waste people's time.

The main reason for this may be: if an individual seeks more health, he may do this on his own, e.g. by watching what makes him more healthy and what doesn't or trying to change his behaviour.

Possibly a confusion may arise when seeking help is conflated with reading books, papers, watching tv etc. I would not suggest to address this kind of enquiry as Health-Seeking.

Also an individual may ask a doctor or otherwise qualified people for advice  regarding his health. That would be as well Health-Seeking as Help-Seeking. This would as well apply to joining a self-helpers group etc.

On the other hand people may seek help for non-health reasons. Learning an instrument, maths - the list is long.

Hope that helps ;-)

Hans

Help seeking behaviour is a series of activities taken by people when they feel ill. The first step is perception of change in ones health status followed by internal and external discussion about the perceived change. This stage would end at a decision about the illness (seriousness, cause, envisaged consequences ...). at this moment care may be sought from external sources, medical or traditional and the process is continued. Help seeking behaviour might be considered synonymous to health seeking behaviour but it is probably of wider scope, help seeking might not necessary concerned with health issue only.

According to what i understand from Sara Mac kinan's description in the file attached below, there are two approach to this concept. first, what facilitates the use of health services, and the second, what influences people to behave differently in relation to their health. the first approach named: Health care seeking behaviors: utilization of the system(medical sociological view such as: socioeconomic variables, sex, age, the social status of women, the type of illness, access to services and perceived quality of the service ).

the second approach: Health seeking behaviors: the process of illness response( rooted especially in psychology, looks at health seeking behaviors more generally; drawing out the factors which enable or prevent people from making ‘healthy choices’, in either their lifestyle behaviors or their use of medical care and treatment. ). so it seems that help seeking behavior is using interchangeably with health seeking behavior in the second approach.

Yes thank you for this beautiful answer.