Health Beliefs and Health Seeking Behaviours of Mbororos Communities in Mezam Division of the North West Region of Cameroon

The purpose of this study was to investigate how indigenous health beliefs affect health seeking behaviours of the Mbororos in their communities in Mezam Division. The study employed a cross sectional survey research design using explanatory sequential mixed methods. Quantitative data were collected using questionnaire while focus group discussions and interview guides were used to collect qualitative data. Questionnaires were completed by 500 Mbororos selected by simple random sampling while 36 Mbororo leaders and elders and 3 healthcare providers were purposefully selected, making a total of 539 respondents. The data were analysed with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences SPSS version 23.0 for windows where descriptive statistics such as percentages, mean scores and standard deviation were gotten. Equally SPSS was also used for regression analysis and tested the effects between the independent and dependent variables. The qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis method. The findings showed that Indigenous health belief had a statistically significant effect on health seeking behaviour towards traditional therapy at 1 level p = 0.000 . . On another perspective the qualitative data which complemented the findings showed that indigenous health beliefs had effects on health seeking behaviours towards traditional therapy among the Mbororos. The study supports the notion that the Mbororo communities in Mezam Division and beyond should develop more tolerance for conventional medicine and rush for appropriate diagnosis and treatment before complementing with traditional treatment. Integration of modern and traditional medicine is recommended. In addition the healthcare providers should be accommodating, culturally competent and apply a culturally congruent approach in treatment. Foncham Paul Babila | Einstein Moses Egebe Anyi | Fomba Emmanuel Mbebeb "Health Beliefs and Health Seeking Behaviours of Mbororos Communities in Mezam Division of the North West Region of Cameroon" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-7 | Issue-3 , June 2023, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com.com/papers/ijtsrd56359.pdf Paper URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com.com/humanities-and-the-arts/education/56359/health-beliefs-and-health-seeking-behaviours-of-mbororos-communities-in-mezam-division-of-the-north-west-region-of-cameroon/foncham-paul-babila