Health seeking behavior of North Bengal: A study of the effects of socio-economic and demographic characteristics on the healthcare facilities in Siliguri Municipal Corporation Area (SMCA)

Subrata Ghosh

Volume : VII, Issue : VIII, August - 2018

Health seeking behavior of North Bengal: A study of the effects of socio-economic and demographic characteristics on the healthcare facilities in Siliguri Municipal Corporation Area (SMCA)

Subrata Ghosh

Abstract :

Background: With urbanization and modernization, majority of the developing countries including India is passing through demographic as well as epidemiologic transition with varying morbidity prevalence rates among different background people. Present study made an attempt to address the health seeking behaviorin the light of socio-economic and demographic characteristics of the people of Siliguri Municipal Corporation Area (SMCA), since the region is characterised substantial population pressure, rapid urbanisation, persistent migration, increasing slums etc and diversified or unstructured healthcare facilities. Materials and Methods: Multi-stage sampling method was adopted and cross-sectional survey was conducted with 400 households or 1,684 persons on nature and extent of utilization of availablehealthcare facilities during their illness. Results: Healthcare facility utilisation rate was378.86 per 1000 persons. Though there is no such remarkable variation exists among the different castes and religions regarding the use of healthcare service facilities but disparity is found in case of other factors such as gender, age, household monthly income, marital status etc. Conclusion: Despite the availability of healthcare facilities, all illness episodes were not utilised the healthcare services, variation in socio-economic and demographic background of the people could be the probable reason. To some extent, healthc seeking behaviour of the individual is influenced by several other factors such as pattern of utilisation, source of care and system of medicine utilised during the reference period.