This is a descriptive cross-sectional study that aimed to determine the health status and health-seeking behaviors of public utility jeepney drivers in Zamboanga City. A total of 294 PUJ drivers, selected by multistage sampling participated with consent in the study. Data collection was done using interviewer-administered questionnaire utilizing the SF-36 survey to assess health status and another questionnaire to assess the health-seeking behaviors for both preventive and curative spectrums. For Health Status, the highest mean scores were along the areas of physical functioning (95%) and Role Limitation-Emotional (94.6%), whereas the lowest mean scores were in the areas of Energy/Fatigue (65.7%) and General Health (67.4%). Health-seeking behaviors were described in two spectrums: Preventive and Curative. Preventive health-seeking behaviors were described as healthy and high-risk lifestyle behaviors among jeepney drivers. Preventive health-seeking behaviors revealed alarming numbers of high-risk practices such as smoking (71. 4%), alcohol consumption (76.5%), and soft drink intake (61.9%). Healthy lifestyle behaviors that were most prevalent were drinking sufficient amount of water (82%), enough hours of sleep (71.4%) and regular consumption of fruits and vegetables (46.3%). For Curative health-seeking behaviors, the most common initial management for all four symptoms: cough/colds, body pains, fever and headache is self-medication. The health status of jeepney drivers is above average however their high demand of work does not exempt them from symptoms such as cough and colds, body pain, headache and fever. Preventive health-seeking behaviors revealed alarming numbers of high-risk practices and curative health-Seeking behavior revealed a high prevalence for self-medication. This implies that health education among PUJ drivers is important to raise awareness on the different health issues that are revealed in this study. The association among jeepney drivers and their associated storage units provide the opportunity and place lor learning sessions to be organized.

Keyword: Health-seeking behaviors Public utility jeepney drivers