An Assumptive Study on Illness Behavior at a Local Village in Northern Okinawa-With Special Reference to Self-Treatment-

Abstract

We conducted an assumptive survey on illness behavior; asking "When you feel sick, what will you do?", at a local village in northern Okinawa in July 1985, focusing on self-treatment. A retrospective survey was also carried out at the same time. However only a small number of illness cases were collected and therefore an assumptive one was mainly analyzed in the paper. The findings were as follows: 1. In almost all of 12 illness cases the respondents had a more positive attitude toward self-treatment than the other two coping methods; i.e. resting from work and utilization of medical services: 2. As the gravity of illness increased, their positive attitude toward self-treatment didn't change, whereas their attitude toward the other two coping methods changed from a negative one to a positive one; 3. Among the various ways of self-treatment, using patent medicine was most preferred, followed by folk or popular medical treatments for which the choice rate was considerably lower; 4. The above findings were roughly consistent with those from the retrospective survey; 5. Eighty three respondents were classified into five groups through cluster analysis. The first was the "negative group" which consisted of 16 persons who had a negative attitude toward every coping method. The second, the "utilization group" which only included 3 persons, had a negative attitude toward self-treatment but a positive one toward the other two coping methods. The third, the "positive group" which included 35 persons had a positive attitude toward every coping method. The fourth, the "self group" which consisted of 24 persons had a positive attitude toward self-treatment but a negativeone toward the other coping methods. The fifth group included 5 persons who couldn't be clustered; 6. The female's ratio of the "self group" was significantly higher than that of the other groups. Whereas, the younger respondent's ratio of the "negative group" was higher than that of the other groups, the older respondent's ratio of the "positive group" was higher than that of the other groups; 7. There was an inverse relationship between the preference of using patent medicine and cultivation of herbs. An inverse relationship also exited between the preference of folk or popular medical treatments and the ratio of service in occupation of the householder to which a respondent belonged.