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Health Care Seeking Behavior

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Handbook of Immigrant Health

Abstract

Illness-related human experience has long been the subject of literary, philosophical, and religious discourse. During the later half of the 20th century, scientific interest in better characterizing specific elements of illness behavior and health-related actions has increased dramatically (Gochman, 1988; McHugh & Vallis, 1985). Spurred by advances in preventive and curative medical care and by the desire to help ensure that all members of society would make optimal use of health care, medical and public health researchers and behavioral and social scientists have been increasingly drawn to the study of human behavior and illness. Included in this growing body of literature are studies of health care seeking behavior (Ostrove & Baum, 1983). Based on different theoretical and methodological traditions, medical practitioners, epidemiologists, economists, psychologists, sociologists, and anthropologists are studying the use of health care services, factors associated with utilization, and the ways in which people interpret health-related symptoms and take action to address these symptoms, including seeking help from a range of alternative sources to prevent, ameliorate, treat, or cope with the symptoms (Mechanic, 1985).

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  1. School of Social Work, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, 90089, USA

    Kathleen Ell & Irma Castañeda

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  1. Kathleen Ell
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  1. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, 44106-4945, USA

    Sana Loue

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Ell, K., Castañeda, I. (1998). Health Care Seeking Behavior. In: Loue, S. (eds) Handbook of Immigrant Health. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1936-6_7

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