Table 2.

Studies reporting rural older individuals’ HSBs.

Study	Country	Study Design	Participants	Causes of HSB	HSB	Outcome	Results
Jett 2002, [26]	United States	Qualitative research	n = 41; M and F	General symptoms	Professional care	Perception of HSB	Older individuals believe that receiving help in late life is a reward for a good life. By understanding and following the rules of help-seeking, formal helpers might more efficiently and effectively meet their needs.
Sakamoto 2004, [27]	Japan	Cross-sectional study	n = 285; M and F	Depression	Professional care	Associations with backgrounds	Participation in mental health workshops was associated with frequent consultation with professional care.
Ma 2008, [28]	China	Cohort	n = 127; M and F	Depression	Professional care	Associations with backgrounds	Female sex, lower educational level, monthly income, and the presence of one or more major medical conditions were associated with lower use of professional care with the symptoms of depression.
Vagenas 2009, [29]	Australia	Cohort	n = 12,778; F	General symptoms	Professional care	Mortality	Mortality was higher in rural than in urban women. Rural women reported fewer visits to general practitioners and medical specialists.
Iloh 2012, [30]	Nigeria	Cross-sectional	n = 216; M and F	Acute symptoms	Professional care	Diagnosis	The three most common causes of geriatric emergencies were acute malaria (33.8%), hypertensive crises syndrome (19.0%), and acute hypertensive heart failure (18.1%).
Brenes 2015, [31]	United States	Cross-sectional	n = 478; M and F	General anxiety disorder	Professional care	Associations with backgrounds	The most reported barrier to treatment was the personal belief that “I should not need help”. Other commonly reported barriers included practical barriers (cost, not knowing where to go, distance), mistrust of mental health providers, not thinking treatment would help, stigma, and not wanting to talk with a stranger about private matters.
Pham 2018, [32]	Vietnam	Cross-sectional	n = 523; M and F	General symptoms	Professional care	QOL	People with higher QOL were less likely to use inpatient services.
Zhang 2019, [33]	China	Cross-sectional	n = 31,464; M and F	Chronic diseases	Professional care	QOL	One-year and two-week access to healthcare was found to be associated with QOL scores at the 10th and 90th quantiles, respectively. Access to healthcare affects the self-assessed health and QOL of the elderly.
Xu 2020, [34]	China	Cross-sectional	n = 216; M and F	General symptoms	Lay care	Associations with backgrounds	The factors associated with self-treatment were better health status, no recent alcohol consumption, and no utilization of family practice.
Srivastava 2020, [35]	India	Cross-sectional	n = 9973; M and F	Chronic diseases	Professional care	Associations with backgrounds	Older individuals living with a spouse in comparison to those living alone had a lower likelihood to have untreated morbidities. Additionally, the elderly from rural areas and having lower levels of education had a higher likelihood of untreated morbidity.
Ohta 2021, [25]	Japan	Mixed-method	n = 267; M and F	Acute symptoms	Lay and professional care	Clarifying contents of HSB	The most common behavior with mild symptoms was consulting with primary care physicians, followed by self-care and using home medicine. The test–retest reliability for mild symptoms revealed kappa values of 0.836 for lay care and 0.808 for professional care.
Srivastava 2021, [36]	India	Cross-sectional	n = 31,464; M and F	Psychiatric disorders	Professional care	Associations with backgrounds	Older adults, who were females and with a lower socioeconomic background had a lower probability of seeking treatment for a psychiatric disorder.
Ohta 2021, [37]	Japan	Cross-sectional	n = 1066; M and F	Acute symptoms	Lay care	QOL	The HSBs with a trend of using self-management were related to a high QOL.
Chauhan 2021, [38]	India	Cross-sectional	n = 31,464; M and F	Chronic diseases	Professional care	Associations with backgrounds	Treatment-seeking is relatively low among the elderly in low-income households.
Korman 2021, [39]	Poland	Cross-sectional	n = 194; M and F	Myocardial infarction	Professional care	Trend for professional care	76.2% would call an ambulance in response to chest pain. Merely 80% were able to recall the emergency phone number. Among respondents who declared they would not call an ambulance, 38.7% were afraid of in-hospital COVID-19 infection or healthcare system collapse.
Ohta 2021, [40]	Japan	Cross-sectional	n = 169; M and F	Acute symptoms	Lay and professional care	Self-rated health	Using both lay and professional care was significantly associated with high self-rated health.

Footnotes. HSB: help-seeking behavior; F—female; M—male; QOL—quality of life.