[Health seeking behavior and related influential factors on rural reproductive tract infections among rural women at reproductive age].

Objective: To understand health seeking behavior and its influential factors to reproductive tract infections (RTIs) on women at reproductive age in the rural areas.

Methods: 54540 fertile women aged 15 - 49 were surveyed by a stratified-cluster-random sampling method and gynecological examination were conducted in two steps: converging at the clinics, and then visiting their households, later, 31 624 women who had at least one RTI symptom were chosen.

Results: Among all the women at reproductive age, the rate of having at least one RTI symptom was 59.8% with the means of RTI symptom as 1.66 +/- 0.89. 15989 women went to see doctors out of the 31 624 women who had RTI symptoms, with a proportion of 50.6%. The results of logistic regress showed that those women whose husbands having higher education level, higher income, more RTI symptoms and better knowledge on RTI were more easily to go to the hospitals. However, those women whose husbands working out of the county, having older first bearing age and more numbers of pregnancy were less likely to go to the hospitals. Reasons that refrained them from going to see a doctor would include: 2137 (13.7%) did not know that RTI was a disease; 7443 (47.6%) of them thought that every woman were bound to have at least one symptom and it did not matter; 1629 (10.4%) of them felt shameful; 349 (2.2%) learned that the diseases were incurable; 975 (6.2%) felt the cost of treatment was too expensive; 2101 (13.4%) had no time; 1001 (6.4%) would treat themselves through buying medicines over the counter.

Conclusion: RTI symptoms were quite prevalent among women at reproductive age but the rate of seeing a doctor was low and caused by multi-factors. Health education and gynecological census in increasing the curable rate of RTIs should to be strengthened.