Health seeking behavior of general population: An experience from Islamabad

Introduction

Health seeking behaviour is affected by physical, socioeconomic, cultural and political factors. There is a growing need to modify the health policy in light of the existing treatment seeking trends in the community where many parallel systems are available like the government facilities, private practitioners, self medication, traditional healers and others.Method

A cross sectional survey was carried out in urban setting in Islamabad during June 2008, covering 100 households of high, middle and low socioeconomic strata interviewing a female member of the family using a structured questionnaire containing both open ended and closed ended questions.Result

The statistical survey showed that out of 100 households 84% reported having some mild illness in the last month of which 96% opted for some treatment. Going to a private health facility was the first response of 32% (n=27) of the households followed by Government facility 29% (n=24) and self treatment 27% (n=23).Private facility response was most frequent among the lower stratum while self treatment was the most popular response among the higher socioeconomic stratum. Equal trend towards Government and Private facilities was seen in the middle stratum. Self treatment was found to be directly related to higher education and income levels. Among users of self treatment the most preferable mode was self prescription of allopathic medicines.

The major reason reported for going to a particular health facility was easy accessibility 49% (n=41) followed by its effectiveness 37% (n=31) and belief in the treatment 25% (n=29).Conclusion

 Easy accessibility is the prime factor shaping health seeking behaviour in the community. There is a need for education of the population to adopt effective treatment seeking bahaviour and a continous monitoring of the quality of care provided at all available facilities especially of those most commonly used by the community.