Perceptions on the Effectiveness of Treatment and the Timeline of Buruli Ulcer Influence Pre-Hospital Delay Reported by Healthy Individuals

Background: delay in seeking treatment at the hospital is a major challenge in current buruli ulcer control; it is associated with severe sequelae and functional limitations. choosing alternative treatment and psychological,social and practical factors appear to influence delay. objectives were to determine potential predictors for pre-hospital delay with leventhal's commonsense model of illness representations,and to explore whether the type of available dominant treatment modality influenced individuals' perceptions about bu,and therefore,influenced pre-hospital delay. methodology: 130 healthy individuals aged >18 years,living in bu-endemic areas in benin without any history of bu were included in this cross-sectional study. sixty four participants from areas where surgery was the dominant treatment and sixty six participants from areas where antibiotic treatment was the dominant treatment modality were recruited. using a semi-structured interview we measured illness perceptions (ipq-r),knowledge about bu,background variables and estimated pre-hospital delay. principal findings: the individual characteristics 'effectiveness of treatment' and 'timeline acute-chronic' showed the strongest association with pre-hospital delay. no differences were found between regions where surgery was the dominant treatment and regions where antibiotics were the dominant treatment modality. conclusions: individual characteristics,not anticipated treatment modality appeared predictors of pre-hospital delay. © 2013 alferink et al.