Background: Prostatism refers to obstruction of the bladder neck due to an enlargement of the prostate as men ages leading to urinary difficulties. Prostatism symptoms are majorly irritative and obstructive. The obstructive ones include hesitancy, the need to initiate micturition and a weakened urinary stream while the Irritative ones which are usually more troublesome to patients includes urgency, frequency as well as nocturia. This study was cross sectional study which was conducted at Nyamira County.
Objective: The study sought to establish Health system factors that influence health seeking behavior associated with Prostatism among men above 40 years in Nyamira County.
Materials and methods: The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional community study design. The study utilized qualitative and quantitative research methods in order to obtain the required information from respondents. Quantitative data collection was done by use of open and closed ended questionnaires while qualitative data was collected through focused group discussions with adult Men. Confidentiality of information collected was observed and consent was sought from the respondents before collecting any form of information from them. A total of 387 respondents from 18 villages representing 3 villages from six sub locations of Nyamira south and Masaba wards that were randomly selected, were interviewed representing 91.7% response rate. The tools that the researcher used included questionnaire, interview schedule, pens and pencils. Descriptive data was analyzed with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0 with the help of Microsoft Excel programme to generate frequency tables, graphs and pie-charts. Inferential statistics was calculated using Chi-Square tests (p=0.005) done at 95% confidence level to determine the linkage between the Variables.
Results: The study found that the overall uptake level of Prostatism services was 12.1%. Chi-square analysis revealed significant relationship between cost of screening (0.001), having medical insurance (0.001), reception and quality of care (0.01), distance to health facility (0.001) and uptake of Prostatism services.
Conclusion: The study findings revealed a low uptake of prostatism services. The findings of this study will help policy makers, facility administrators and care providers to shape comprehensive healthcare policies and programs targeting Prostatism services. This will help come up with a policy specifically addressing health system factors that affect uptake of prostatism services.