Self-awareness of Health Conditions and Service Utilization among People with Diabetes Mellitus, Hypertension, and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in Thailand, 2019

Abstract

This study aims to assess the self-reported prevalence of three common non-communicable diseases (NCDs), namely diabetes mellitus (DM), hypertension (HTN) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), determine the proportion of Thai residents with these diseases who utilize health services, and explore factors associated with service utilization. We used data from Thailand’s Health and Welfare Survey 2019. We describe the characteristics of those who utilized services and explore factors associated with service utilization using a logistic regression. The prevalence of DM, HTN and COPD among individuals aged at least 15 years was 5.8%, 11.0% and 0.2%, respectively. A high prevalence of these NCDs was observed among older people, those with low education, rural residents, and the unemployed. Those in the richest quintile reported utilizing less services than the poorest. We found associations between having two comorbidities (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 1.30, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.12–1.50), living in the northeast (AOR 1.31, 95% CI 1.12–1.53) and being unemployed (AOR 1.22, 95% CI 1.05–1.42) with increased the utilization. The findings highlight the importance of screening services to minimize undiagnosed NCDs, and increase awareness among underserved populations. Provision of awareness campaigns and health education related to NCDs are urgently needed.

Keywords: health service utilization, non-communicable diseases, Thailand