Table 4.

Determinants of the number of healthcare visits during the pre-diagnostic phase

Variables	No of visits mean (95% CI)	cβ (95% CI)	P	aβ (95% CI)	P
Total number of visits	2.56 (2.41–2.71)
First contact facility
Primary Health Centre	2.18 (1.96–2.41)	Ref		Ref
Private clinic	3.06 (2.83–3.30)	0.89 (0.57–1.22)	< 0.001	0.90 (0.57–1.24)	< 0.001
Public hospital	2.13 (1.77–2.48)	− 0.07 (− 0.55–0.41)	0.766	− 0.08 (− 0.56–0.41)	0.750
Private hospital	2.65 (2.06–3.24)	0.44 (− 0.14–1.02)	0.140	0.39 (− 0.20–0.99)	0.194
Other health provider	3.9 (2.66–5.14)	1.70 (0.91–2.49)	< 0.001	1.77 (0.97–2.57)	< 0.001
District
Urban	2.49 (2.18–2.63)	Ref		Ref
Suburban	2.63 (2.37–2.90)	0.21 (−0.29–0.70)	0.406	0.17 (− 0.31–0.66)	0.484
Rural	2.56 (2.34–2.78)	0.11 (−0.39–0.62)	0.667	−0.05 (− 0.57–0.48)	0.861
Household income levela
Poor	2.58 (2.38–2.77)	0.07 (−0.25–0.40)	0.656	0.02 (−0.34–0.31)	0.927
Non-poor	2.53 (2.29–2.78)	Ref		Ref
Education levelb
Low	2.66 (2.39–2.92)	0.16 (−0.17–0.49)	0.336	0.14 (−0.22–0.43)	0.526
Middle-high	2.51 (2.32–2.70)	Ref		Ref
National health coverage
Covered	2.58 (2.37–2.79)	0.07 (−0.25–0.39)	0.673	0.18 (−0.13–0.49)	0.259
Not covered	2.53 (2.32–2.74)	Ref		Ref
Workers in informal sectors
Yes	2.55 (2.37–2.72)	−0.07 (−0.41–0.27)	0.692	−0.12 (− 0.44–0.21)	0.480
No	2.59 (2.29–2.90)	Ref		Ref

β is the GLMM coefficient of the expected change in the number of visits compared to the reference category; cβ crude coefficient β; aβ adjusted coefficient β; CI confidence interval; Ref reference; P value of significance; ^a household earning below 1.9 USD per capita per day was classified as a poor household; ^b a patient who did not graduate from elementary school was classified as having low education level