. 2008 Jul 1;58(552):501–508. doi: 10.3399/bjgp08X319486

Table 2.

Barriers to seeking health care.

Category	Subcategory	Barrier described	Reference(s)^a
Patient	Embarrassment	Exposing self to peers personally and emotionally	⁹^–¹¹^,²⁴
		Feel a failure as should be able to cope	¹¹^,¹³^,¹⁴
		Worried illness may be trivial	¹⁰^–¹⁴^,²⁴
		Worried self-diagnosis or treatment might be wrong	13
		Worried about imposing on another busy doctor	¹³^,²⁰^,²²^,²⁴
		Mental health issues	⁹^–¹³^,¹⁶^,²⁴

	Time	Time	¹⁰^,¹²^,¹³^,¹⁷^,²⁰^,²²^,²⁴^,³²

	Cost	Fees	¹⁸^,²⁰^,³¹^,³²
		Inadequate insurance (health, disability, business)	¹⁴^,²³
	Personality	Locus of control	¹⁹^,²⁶

	Specialty	Specialty practice of physician	19

	Who	Not easy to find the right doctor	¹⁰^–¹⁴^,²⁴
		Lack of regular source of care (GP)	¹²^,¹³^,¹⁹

	Already satisfied	Already satisfied with own care (no need for GP)	¹⁰^,¹²^,¹³^,¹⁷

	Fear	Loss of control	¹¹^,¹³^,²²

	Awareness of implications	Getting future insurance	¹¹^,¹³
		Awareness of burden on colleagues and patients	¹¹^,¹³^,¹⁴^,²²

	Knowledge	Awareness of limitations of the medical system	¹¹^–¹³^,¹⁸
		Easy to justify symptoms as insignificant	¹¹^–¹³^,²²

Provider	Confidentiality	General concerns	⁸^,¹⁰^,¹¹^,¹⁷^,²³
		Doctors might discuss care with peers	⁸^,¹⁹
		Staff might find out personal information	13
		Workplace may receive confidential information	13

	Quality of care	Poor medical care	¹⁰^,¹¹^,¹³^,²⁰^,²²^,²⁵
		Failure to be treat doctor–patient like a normal patient	¹¹^,²²^,³¹^,³²
		Failure to recognise specific needs of doctor–patient	¹¹^,¹³

System	Culture	Pressure from doctors to be healthy	¹⁰^–¹⁴^,²⁵^,³²
		Pressure from community to be healthy	11
		Self-treatment OK	¹⁰^,²²
		Partners/peers tend not to intervene	¹¹^–¹⁴^,²²
		Lack of normal cues to health seeking	¹¹^,¹⁴^,²⁴

	Structure	No locums	¹³^,¹⁴^,²⁰^,²⁵
		Long hours of duty	¹¹^,¹³^,²⁴^,³²
		Lack of medical training on seeking health care as a doctor and treating doctors	¹²^,¹³^,²⁵

Articles that describe the barrier listed.