Assessment of health care seeking behaviour and its associated factors amongst the residents of a rural community of Kamrup District in Assam: a mixed method study

Authors

  • Rashmi Agarwalla Department of Community and Family Medicine, AIIMS Guwahati, Assam, India
  • Subba Krishna Department of Community and Family Medicine, AIIMS Guwahati, Assam, India
  • Subhrajeet Chakrborty Department of Community and Family Medicine, AIIMS Guwahati, Assam, India
  • Forhad Akhtar Zaman Department of Community and Family Medicine, AIIMS Guwahati, Assam, India
  • Himashree Bhattacharyya Department of Community and Family Medicine, AIIMS Guwahati, Assam, India
  • Limalemla Jamir Department of Community and Family Medicine, AIIMS Guwahati, Assam, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20241842

Keywords:

Health literacy, Health care seeking behaviour, Rural community

Abstract

Background: Healthcare seeking behaviour (HSB) is an important determinant of health outcome. There are multiple socio demographic & provider related variables which determines the HSB of a community. Recognition of these determinants is important in promoting appropriate health care seeking behaviour.

Methods: The study was a cross sectional study with mixed method design conducted amongst 200 households in a rural area of Assam. Systematic random sampling was used to determine the households to be interviewed and only one responder was taken from each household. Along with a predesigned and pretested questionnaire, health literacy was assessed through the HLS-EU-Q16 questionnaire (translated to the local language). Qualitative data was collected through 2 Focus Group Discussions and 4 In-Depth Interviews.

Results: The study determined that 62% of the population had appropriate HSB while the rest (38%) lacked appropriate HSB. The Health Literacy of 31% population was problematic, 23% was inadequate while only 46% had sufficient Health Literacy. The tribal population had significantly higher inappropriate HSB as compared to the non tribals variable [A.O.R- 2.12; CI (1.15-3.88)]. Qualitative analysis revealed that participants were multiple barriers such as “Inappropriate disease severity perception”, “Inconvenient OPD timings” amongst host of other barriers. Similarly, “Pro-Active approach of Health Care Workers” was amongst the factors identified as enabler.

Conclusions: As health care providers we need to focus on the tribal community and ensure that proper confidence building measures are in place to make sure that the apprehensions are addressed.

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Published

2024-06-28

How to Cite

Agarwalla, R., Krishna, S., Chakrborty, S., Akhtar Zaman, F., Bhattacharyya, H., & Jamir, L. (2024). Assessment of health care seeking behaviour and its associated factors amongst the residents of a rural community of Kamrup District in Assam: a mixed method study. International Journal Of Community Medicine And Public Health, 11(7), 2805–2811. https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20241842

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Original Research Articles