Emmanuel Odishika and Chinenye Nwabueze
The study examined the influence of cultural health beliefs on healthcare providers/ patients’ communication in primary healthcare centers in Delta state, Nigeria. The objectives of the study were to ascertain whether the cultural health beliefs of the respondents influenced communication between healthcare providers and patients in the area of study as well as the medication adherence and healthcare seeking behaviours of the patients. The triangulation approach was adopted for the study, using a combination of Survey and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) methods. Under survey method, a sample of 316 respondents was purposively selected and studied using the instrumentation of the questionnaire for data collection. Also, Sixty eight (68) FGD participants and sixteen (16) in-depth interviewees featured in the respective FGD and in-depth interview sessions that were conducted in the study. The theoretical framework for the study was provided by the Health Belief Model (HBM), and Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). The result of the study showed that, whereas respondents’ cultural health beliefs did not influence communication between providers and patients, they influenced patients’ medication adherence and healthcare seeking behaviours.
