Activities of self-treatment and help-seeking before emergency department presentation: A gender- and ethnicity-specific analysis

Abstract

Aim The aim of this study was to identify the frequency and forms of self-treatment and help-seeking in an emergency situation and to explore the influence of gender and ethnicity. Data and methods The data were gathered in a study from 2001/2002 analysing the utilisation of gynaecological and internal emergency departments (ED) in Berlin. For this analysis, 609 patients with German and Turkish/Kurdish ethnicity were selected. Multilingual interviewers using a standardised interview guide available in the relevant languages interviewed the patients. The activities of selftreatment (ST) and help-seeking were assessed in an openended question and categorised for data analysis. Results Before ED utilisation, 80.6% of the participants had tried to alleviate their complaints with various measures of ST, whereby the use of medical-oriented measures was most frequently reported. Various home remedies were applied. Significant ethnicity-specific differences emerged; gender differences were minor. Turkish/Kurdish men used ST the least frequently. As predictors for ST, only two variables remained significant in logistic regression models: ethnicity (OR=0.47) and perceived pain-related impairment (OR=1.15). Conclusion Although few gender-and strong ethnicityrelated differences regarding patients' ST and help-seeking behaviour are discernible, the applied strategies seem to be ubiquitous. Applying ST to deal with acute complaints is very likely. In medical encounters, self-treatment should be explored to minimise detrimental effects on the one hand and to support self-treatment activities on the other. Further studies should explore concrete patterns of self-treatment and help-seeking and underlying potentials for amelioration of anamnesis and treatment.