Help Seeking Behavior in Medical Care: Review on researches in Japan

Abstract

Going to see a doctor is one of the cooping behaviors when we feel sick or ill. In this article, factors affecting a dicision whether they go to see a doctor or not, and why they choose their doctor are mentioned.

In Japan, because the referral system does not work well patients often change their doctors without a referral. Doctors’ insufficient explanation about disease and doctors’ attitude ignoring patients’ idea for disease are influential factors for patients to change their doctors. Therefore, it is important to investigate patients’ help seeking behavior in medical care from the standpoint of patients besides administrators. In this article, reviewing former researches, other effective ways to investigate patients’ help seeking behavior in medical care are mentioned.