Yaddanapalli SC, Srinivas R, Simha BV, Devaki T, Viswanath V, Pachava S, Chandu VC. Utilization of health services in Tenali Mandal, Andhra Pradesh- A cross-sectional study.
J Family Med Prim Care 2019;
8:2997-3004. [PMID:
31681681 PMCID:
PMC6820388 DOI:
10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_462_19]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/13/2019] [Revised: 06/19/2019] [Accepted: 08/01/2019] [Indexed: 11/04/2022] Open
Abstract
Introduction
India has a plurality of health care with different systems of medicine delivered by government and local bodies in hospitals and clinics. Public hospitals provide 60% of all hospitalizations, while the private sector provides 75% of all routine care. Utilization is the actual attendance by the members of the public at health care facilities, which measures the number of visits per year or the number of people with at least one visit during the previous year, serves as an important tool and acts as a guiding path in understanding disease profile and also helps resource allocation.
Materials and Methods
A cross-sectional study was done using the National Pathfinder survey (stratified cluster random sampling) to know the health care utilization, profile, and pattern in Tenali Mandal, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh.
Results
The study sample comprised of 1,500 subjects who were equally divided among 5 age groups. Out of 1,500 participants, 52.8% were females and 47.2% were males. In total, 71.7% of the study participants have utilized health services, with majority of them (44.5%) had availed services within the last 6 months with prime reason of fevers (15.8%), while the main barrier for not seeking care was distance (17.03%), almost an equal proportion of the population sought care for their problems through home remedies and over-the-counter.
Conclusion
There is an utmost need to minimize barriers of utilizing by making them aware of the health problems, so that they develop a positive attitude toward health care utilization. Therefore, knowledge of utilization of health services and associated factors is important in planning and delivery of interventions by the primary care physicians to improve health services coverage.
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