Utilization of health services in Tenali Mandal, Andhra Pradesh- A cross-sectional study

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.

Scoping review of outpatient health services utilization among women

“…Road access, travel time to medical facilities (Yaddanapalli et al. , 2019 ), and the expense of transit have all been identified as major obstacles to HSU for women in a number of studies (Brownson and Eyong, 2020 ).…”

“…A number of studies have reported road access (Brownson and Eyong, 2020 ), distance to health care centers, and transportation costs as significant barriers to HSU among women (Yaddanapalli et al. , 2019 ).…”

Oral healthcare-seeking behavior and perception of oral health and general healthcare among WHO indexed age groups in East-Coast India

“…a total of 100 individuals from each site were selected resulting in sample size of 1500 and for the age groups of 5 years, 12 years, and 15 years the questionnaire was administered to their parents/guardians. [ 6 ]…”