scholarly journals A study regarding availability and utilization of services of the government health facility in village Nagkalan, district Amritsar, Punjab

Author(s):  
Ritika Bakshi ◽  
Tejbir Singh ◽  
Sanjeev Mahajan ◽  
Jasleen Kaur ◽  
Mohan Lal ◽  
...  

Background: Health care expenses induced impoverishment in the poverty stricken strata of rural India is a major issue. The government of India has come up with various services in public health facilities, but there are various factors which curtail the utilization of available services and people have to visit some private health facility. The present study deals with the extent of utilization of services of government health facility and the factors impeding the utilization.Methods: The present cross sectional study was conducted in village Nagkalan, district Amritsar, where the eldest adult members present in the house at the time of the visit, and are interviewed using a semi-structured and predesigned questionnaire. A total of 1123 families were included in the final analysis. Data was compiled, analysed and valid conclusions drawn.Results: Almost all the respondents were aware about the existence of subsidiary health centre in the village. However, out of those who were aware, 40.8% never visited the centre. Utilization was more in the lower socio economic status. Immunization services followed by treatment for common ailments constituted the top two reasons for visiting the centre. Out of those visiting the centre, 80.7% were not satisfied with the current timings of the centre; only 20.2% were attended by the doctor and 33.3% reported that the prescribed medicines were never available at the centre.Conclusions: Regular supply of prescribed medicines, availability of the doctor and appropriate timings are critical for utilization of health care services at the government health facility.

1970 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 84-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chitra Bahadur Budhathoki ◽  
R K BC

Background: Community understanding and practices relating to causation, transmission, prevention and treatment are the main socio-cultural factors that can influence malaria control but studies done social aspect of malaria control are limited in Nepal.Methods: Cross-sectional study was conducted in 2003 in Jhalari VDC of Kanchanpur district where both Tharus and Pahari communities coexist. Total of 184 households were included in the study through systematic random sampling procedure for household survey. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were applied for data collection.Results: Fever, headache, chills, shivering, joint pain and spasmodic fever were the most frequently mentioned symptoms of malaria. Though most people knew that mosquito bite might cause malaria fever, they had multiple notions of malaria causations such as hot weather, living near forest, season change, overwork and weakness. They were not clear how a mosquito gets infected and transmit the disease from one person to another. The results showed that people incorporated traditional and modern elements into their concepts of the diseases and treatment strategies. Home remedy with herbs and self-treatment with anti-malarial pills are rare in both communities. Use of government health facility is significantly higher in Paharis than in Tharus. Tharus initially consult their traditional healers and visit the drug retailers in the most cases and government facility in some cases. Tharus were less informed of free diagnosis and treatment of malaria at the government health facilities.Conclusion: Both Tharus and Paharis are aware of malaria fever and actively seeking medical help from available sources of treatment; however, they are poorly informed of dangerous falciparum malaria and process of the disease transmission through infected mosquitoes. Tharus have less access to the government health facility than Paharis. Thus the improved health services in terms of availability, quality and accessibility, and effective information and communication regarding diseases and services can go a long way in tackling the problem.  Key words: Malaria; Fever; Knowledge; Perceptions; Treatment; Health-seeking behaviour.doi: 10.3126/jnhrc.v6i2.2189Journal of  Nepal Health Research Council 2008 Oct;6(13) Page : 84-92


Author(s):  
Richa Verma ◽  
Tejbir Singh ◽  
Mohan Lal ◽  
Jasleen Kaur ◽  
Sanjeev Mahajan ◽  
...  

Background: Low level of education of the slum dwellers along-with poor socio- economic status and pathetic environmental conditions lead to their poor health indicators. Since the National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) was launched in 2013, the health services are still in their initial stages. Assessment of the availability as well as the utilization of health care services of the urban slums is the need of the hour.Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted in randomly selected slum in Amritsar city. All the houses were enumerated and visited by the interviewer herself. The eldest adult member of the family was selected as key respondent and written, informed consent was obtained. Predesigned questionnaire was used to collect the data which was then compiled and analyzed using statistical tests.Results: Out of the total respondents, one third respondents had knowledge about the government health center nearby (statistically significant) while out of these, only one third utilized the services at the center (statistically non-significant). Almost half of the respondents had knowledge about the medical camps and out of these, two-thirds utilized the services at medical camps.Conclusions: Overall utilization of services is poor. More respondents were aware of the medical camps than the static government health facility and utilization of medical camps was also more. So the static health services under NUHM need to be further strengthened.


2012 ◽  
Vol 52 (185) ◽  
Author(s):  
R Paudel ◽  
T Upadhyaya ◽  
D P Pahari

Introduction: Over the past several decades, Nepal has attempted to increase the access of health care services, however progress toward achieving high coverage of health care services in rural communities is still low. Therefore this study attempts to provide a perspective on access to basic healthcare services in government health facility. Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional study with quantitative and qualitative methods was designed and applied to identify the access to health care services. The study population were people who were sick within three months prior to the study where basic sampling unit was household. Total sample size was 96 through the application of simple random sampling method. Bivariate analysis with 95% confidence interval was used to identify the association of variables with access to health care services. Results: Among the total population, 28% of households in the study area received health care services at government health facility. The reasons for not accessing health care were insufficient drugs (61%), distance (22%), staff unavailability (19%), sickness (9%), money (7%), and facility hours (4%). Sex, ethnicity and distance were found significantly associated with access to health care services. Conclusions: Less than one third of households had access to health careservices in government health facility. Addressing the important factors such as drug problems, staff unavailability, long distance to health institutions and inconvenient health facility hours may help to increase access to health care services at government health facility. Keywords: Access, government health facility, health care services, perspective.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 29-36
Author(s):  
IJ Usar ◽  
BB Mairiga

Background: The provision of quality health care services by educational institutions is critical in achieving their primary purpose of producing critical minds. However, published information about the provision and utilization of services at the University of Jos Health Centre since its inception is lacking. This study assessed access and patterns of utilization of services and interventions at the University of Jos Health Centre. The findings should inform better organization and delivery of health care services in the institution.Methods: The study adopted a retrospective cross-sectional design, collecting data of all clients from the medical register of the University of Jos Health Centre from January 2018 to December 2019. Information related to some demographic characteristics, position in the university and diagnosis were extracted and analysed using Epi Info software version 3.5.4. Results: A total of 9,270 clients attended the Health Centre during the period reviewed: males made up 4885 (52.7%) of users, while female utilization was 4385 (47.3%). The average age of patients attending the Health Centre was 29.7 ±15.2 years, with a range of 1-75 years. Students constituted the major group (63%) of patients seen at the Health Centre, followed by staff, staff dependents and non-university users. Malaria was the commonest condition seen, followed by respiratory tract infections, peptic ulcer diseases, hypertension and diabetes mellitus. Conclusion: Communicable and non-communicable diseases are the main causes of service utilization, though the former is dominant. Therefore, integrated health care planning and delivery is recommended, with greater emphasis on cost-effective preventive and promotive interventions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (12) ◽  
pp. 176
Author(s):  
Kerich J. Caroline ◽  
Kemei K. William ◽  
Cherop K. Cleophas

Introduction: Malaria is among the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Kenya. Malaria treatment seeking practices in epidemic areas in Africa such as Kenya are not well studied. The study aimed at assessing the treatment seeking practices in residents of Uasin-Gishu County following Malaria infection. Methods: Study was cross sectional study design. Stratified random sampling was used to identify 341 study participants. Principal component analysis was applied to compute the wealth index and the chisquare tests of association were carried out to determine factors associated with choice of treatment. Multivariate logistic regression determined predictors of treatment seeking practices. P<0.05 significance level was used during the study. Results: Fever was reported in 62.8% of all households; 94% sought treatment for the fever. Commonly assessed facility was government health facility (63%), chemists (15%), private clinics (12%) and traditional healers (2%). Educated persons’ were 8.7 fold more likely to seek care from a private hospital. Employed and business owners were 4.1 fold more likely to purchase medicines from chemists. There were significant negative associations between wealth index and education level and seeking care in a government health facility. Respondents in the middle and fourth quintile with tertiary education level rarely sought care from a government health facility respectively. Conclusion: Treatment practices among households were: through government health institutions, private/clinics and chemists. Wealth index, age category of household heads, education level and occupation influenced treatment seeking practice. Reccomendation: There is need for the government for the government to strength community-based interventions and health facilities


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aimé Bitakuya Heri ◽  
Francesca L. Cavallaro ◽  
Nurilign Ahmed ◽  
Maurice Mubuyaeta Musheke ◽  
Mitsuaki Matsui

Abstract Introduction Zambia is among the countries with the highest HIV burden and where youth remain disproportionally affected. Access to HIV testing and counselling (HTC) is a crucial step to ensure the reduction of HIV transmission. This study examines the changes that occurred between 2007 and 2018 in access to HTC, inequities in testing uptake, and determinants of HTC uptake among youth. Methods We carried out repeated cross-sectional analyses using three Zambian Demographic and Health Surveys (2007, 2013–14, and 2018). We calculated the percentage of women and men ages 15–24 years old who were tested for HIV in the last 12 months. We analysed inequity in HTC coverage using indicators of absolute inequality. We performed bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses to identify predictors of HTC uptake in the last 12 months. Results HIV testing uptake increased between 2007 and 2018, from 45 to 92% among pregnant women, 10 to 58% among non-pregnant women, and from 10 to 49% among men. By 2018 roughly 60% of youth tested in the past 12 months used a government health centre. Mobile clinics were the second most common source reaching up to 32% among adolescent boys by 2018. Multivariate analysis conducted among men and non-pregnant women showed higher odds of testing among 20–24 year-olds than adolescents (aOR = 1.55 [95%CI:1.30–1.84], among men; and aOR = 1.74 [1.40–2.15] among women). Among men, being circumcised (aOR = 1.57 [1.32–1.88]) and in a union (aOR = 2.44 [1.83–3.25]) were associated with increased odds of testing. For women greater odds of testing were associated with higher levels of education (aOR = 6.97 [2.82–17.19]). Education-based inequity was considerably widened among women than men by 2018. Conclusion HTC uptake among Zambian youth improved considerably by 2018 and reached 65 and 49% tested in the last 12 months for women and men, respectively. However, achieving the goal of 95% envisioned by 2020 will require sustaining the success gained through government health centres, and scaling up the community-led approaches that have proven acceptable and effective in reaching young men and adolescent girls who are less easy to reach through the government facilities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 847-861
Author(s):  
Elia Magwaja ◽  
Jacqueline Minja ◽  
Majige Selemani Budeba ◽  
Rocky R.J. Akarro

This study examined some factors associated with the utilization of maternal health care servicesby adolescent mothers (15-19 years) in Tanzania in order to provide advice accordingly. The studyused cross-sectional study of adolescent mothers aged 15-19 years using Demographic HealthSurvey and Malaria indicator Survey 2015/16 data. The dependent variables were number ofantenatal care visits, the place where an adolescent mother delivered and post-natal checkup(adolescent mother’s health checking after being discharged or after a home delivery). Theindependent variables were birth order, education level of a mother, marital status of a mother,media exposure, wealth index, distance to health facility. Multiple binary logistic regression wasused to examine an association between each dependent variable and their respective independentvariables. Data was analyzed using IBM SPSS statistics and STATA. This study used 550adolescent mothers in the analysis. Majority of the adolescent mothers had less than four AntenatalCare (ANC) visits (53.5%), while 68.5% of adolescent mothers delivered at a health facility.Adolescent mothers with two or more children had less odds of having at least four ANCscompared to those with one child, whereas adolescent mothers with at least secondary educationhad greater odds of delivering at a health facility compared to those who had no education.Adolescent mothers who had at least four antenatal care visits and those who are married hadgreater odds of checking their health after being discharged compared to adolescent mothers whohad less than 4 ANCs and single adolescent mothers. It was advised that provision of maternaleducation to young girls on the importance of safe delivery and health checking after delivery isvery important to reduce adolescent maternal morbidity and mortality in the country. Keywords: Adolescent; Maternal Health; Logistic regression; Chi-square


Author(s):  
Santhanathan S Rajendram ◽  
Muhamad Danial Muhamad Hamdan

Dispensing separation in Malaysia has been a widely discussed topic among the medical fraternity. It is a highly sensitive topic as it involves both professional and economic considerations for doctors, pharmacists, and the general public. There has been no decision made thus far but the discussion is ongoing, making a study on this topic very relevant. The subjects of this study, final year students of Bachelor of Pharmacy Programme in Malaysian universities, are chosen to reflect their awareness, preparedness, and knowledge on dispensing separation, which will affect their future in the pharmacy profession. The study was conducted among all 20 Public and Private Institutions of Higher Learning recognized by the Pharmacy Board, Malaysia. This was a cross-sectional study design, and data was collected using a convenience sampling method. The research instrument was an online questionnaire. The first part of the questionnaire covers the demographic information about the respondent, like name, age, gender, and institution. The second part covers the knowledge, awareness and perspectives of respondents towards the implementation of the separation of prescribing and dispensing activities in Malaysia. The final part of the survey focuses on suggestions or problems arising. There were 126 respondents to the survey, way above the 96 respondents needed to make the survey valid. The majority of them are aware of and understand the dispensing separation. Most of them agree that the government should legalize the dispensing separation activities as they believe pharmacists are more knowledgeable and better equipped to dispense drugs. The majority of them believe by implementing dispensing separation, the health care system will be better optimized, and the service will be better. They also believe that patients can accept and adapt to the role of the pharmacist in dispensing medication. The majority of them also agree that the price of medicine will be lowered by the implementation of dispensing separation. Based on the study, these students who are future pharmacists are very knowledgeable on the dispensing separation issue. They believe strongly that the implementation of dispensing separation in Malaysia will bring more beneficial changes to the health care system. The patients will also benefit from this. With such a positive attitude, the implementation of dispensing separation in Malaysia could be imminent  


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Angella Nakimera

Abstract Background: A study was carried out to identify the factors influencing the utilization of ultrasound scan services among pregnant mothers at Ndejje Health Centre IV, Wakiso District. Methodology: The study design was descriptive and cross-sectional and it employed both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods. A sample size of 30 respondents was selected using a simple random sampling procedure. An interview guide was used to collect data. Results: The study revealed various factors influencing the utilization of ultrasound scan services among pregnant mothers. For example, although all 30 (100%) had ever heard about ultrasound scan services, most 20 (66.7%) had ever used ultrasound scan services once 10 (50%) and 12 (60%) used the services in the 3rd trimester due to factors including 20 (66.7%) of ultrasound scan services, 21 (70%) having fears about using ultrasound scan services including 14 (66.7%) fear that the scan would identify bad conditions on the baby, 18 (60%) lacked partner support. The study results also revealed that respondents faced various health facility factors which influenced the utilization of ultrasound scan services. For example, most 20 (66.7%) respondents reported that Ndejje Health Centre IV was not equipped to provide ultrasound scan services due to 12 (60%) frequent breakdown and poor maintenance of equipment which led to 18 (60%) ultrasound scan services not being readily available, 12 (60%) long waiting time to receive services as most waited more than 2 hours to receive services. Conclusion and recommendations: Respondents faced various and health facility-related factors which influenced their utilization of ultrasound scan services. The key recommendations included ready availability of services through regular and timely maintenance of equipment, improving efficiency, and reducing waiting time as well as improved health education of mothers about the importance of using the services.


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