Objectives: Prevalence of symptoms in everyday life and how people respond to these symptoms is little studied outside Western culture and developed countries. We sought to use modified diary methods to explore the prevalence of and responses to symptoms in Pakistan.
Design: Prospective daily survey of symptoms and response.
Setting: 8 cities across four provinces in Pakistan.
Participants: Stratified intercept in each city to recruit 153 participants of which 151 completed.
Primary and secondary outcome measures: Each day for 30 days, participants were prompted by text message (short message service (SMS)) to complete a symptom diary. On days where symptoms were experienced, participants also reported how they responded. Prevalence was adjusted to population age and gender distributions.
Results: 92% of participants experienced symptoms (adjusted prevalence 94%, 95% CI 91% to 97%), with musculoskeletal pain (83%, adj. 84%, 95% CI 84% to 90%) and respiratory symptoms (75%, adj. 77%, 95% CI 71% to 84%) the most prevalent types of symptoms. Self-medication and use of home remedies and traditional medicines were the most common responses. Seeking professional help or using conventional medicine were less common, and self-medication responses included the use of antibiotics without prescription. The range of home remedies and traditional medicines was very diverse.
Conclusions: While symptom experience in Pakistan was similar to Western countries, home remedies were much more frequently used to respond to symptoms. Understanding how people respond and manage their experience of symptoms outside formal healthcare is important for designing effective policy and interventions, and this needs to be understood within the broader context including the cultural and economic setting, the health system and other structural determinants of health.
Keywords: Pakistan; complementary medicine; developing country; diary methods; self-medication; symptom experience.
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