Awareness and preference in utilizing primary health‑care services from rural health center as first point‑of‑care: A community‑based cross‑sectional study in South India
نویسندگان
1
2 Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, JIPMER, Puducherry, India
3 Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, JIPMER, Puducherry, India
doi
چکیده
BACKGROUND: First point‑of‑care (FPC) at the primary health care (PHC) level is an important publichealth issue at the global level. Patients directly come to tertiary health centers without a referral.AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: Hence, the current study was done to assess the proportion of individualsavailing health‑care services from rural health center (RHC) as FPC and reasons for not availing it.METHODS: A community‑based cross‑sectional study was conducted in Puducherry, coastal SouthIndia, among 367 households with 1510 individuals. Sociodemographic details, recent FPC during thepast 6 months, morbidity profile, and reasons for not seeking were collected from all the individuals.RESULTS: About 44.5% (672/1510) of individuals used any health facilities, of which 70.4% (473/672)used RHC as the FPC. About 33.2% of individuals had a respiratory illness, 22.3% had generalsigns and symptoms. About 24.6% (32/130) mentioned the reasons for not seeking care as lack ofappropriate health facilities.CONCLUSION: More than one‑fourth of the study population not utilized services at PHC level.Improving the health facilities may help to increase these services.
