Introduction. Living with diabetes requires patients to have good self-monitoring of their disease and treatment. Appropriate health seeking behavior is important to minimize complications and improve quality of life. Methodology. A community-based, cross-sectional study of disease events and experiences from diagnosis to the time of study was conducted among 460 known diabetics in Tanjong Karang district. The aim of this study was to describe the current pattern of health seeking behavior and its determinants among rural communities. Appropriate diabetic health services utilization was defined as using modern treatment either through oral hypoglycemics or insulin injections, obtained from either a public or private health facility. Result. 85.9% of respondents reported having appropriate health seeking behaviour at the time of the house-to-house community survey. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that appropriate health seeking behaviour was significantly associated with age of respondent, presence of comorbidity, family history of diabetes, distance from health facilities, perceived family support, and history of early treatment seeking at diagnosis and duration of disease. Conclusion. The present population has better appropriate health seeking behavior and provision of knowledge with strong family support in diabetic care which are important in control and prevention of diabetic complication that need to be emphasized. 1. Introduction Diabetes is now regarded as a major public health problem all over the world [1]. The prevalence of diabetes mellitus is reaching epidemic levels worldwide [2, 3]. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that the number of people with diabetes mellitus is expected to rise from 171 million in 2000 to 366 million in 2030, as a result of population ageing and urbanization [4]. In Singapore, diabetes mellitus is the 8th leading cause of death with 3% of all deaths being attributable to diabetes alone [5, 6]. In Malaysia, the World Health Organisation has estimated that in 2030, our country would have a total number of 2.48 million people with diabetes compared to 0.94 million in 2000 [7]. Prevalence of people with diabetes aged more than 18 years old increased from 11.6% in 2006 to 15.2% in 2011 [8]. Health seeking behaviour are directly related to disease incidence, prevalence and complication. Early recognition of symptom, presentation to healthcare facilities, and compliance with effective treatment can reduce morbidity and thereby mortality [9]. Diabetes is a common disease causing significant
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