Health seeking behaviour and health service utilization in Pakistan

Challenging the policy makers

Dados Bibliográficos

ID23337652
AutoresBabar Tasneem Shaikh (0000-0002-2056-4132, Aga Khan University), Juanita Hatcher (Aga Khan University)
Ano2005
Volume27
Fascículo1
Páginas49-54
Data de publicação2005-03-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Public Health (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0943-1853 • E-ISSN: 1613-2238
EditoraOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/pubmed/fdh207
PMID15590705
OpenAlexW2096977327
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas106
Referências citadas28

There is a growing literature on health seeking behaviours and the determinants of health services utilization especially in the context of developing countries. However, very few focused studies have been seen in Pakistan in this regard. This paper presents an extensive literature review of the situation in developing countries and relates the similar factors responsible for shaping up of a health seeking behaviour and health service utilization in Pakistan. The factors determining the health behaviours may be seen in various contexts: physical, socio-economic, cultural and political. Therefore, the utilization of a health care system, public or private, formal or non-formal, may depend on socio-demographic factors, social structures, level of education, cultural beliefs and practices, gender discrimination, status of women, economic and political systems environmental conditions, and the disease pattern and health care system itself. Policy makers need to understand the drivers of health seeking behaviour of the population in an increasingly pluralistic health care system. Also a more concerted effort is required for designing behavioural health promotion campaigns through inter-sectoral collaboration focusing more on disadvantaged segments of the population.

Business · Context (archaeology) · Developing country · Disadvantaged · Economic growth · Economics · Environmental health · Geography · Health care · Health promotion · International health · Political science · Population · Population health · Public economics · Public health · Social determinants of health · Healthcare Systems and Reforms · HIV/AIDS Impact and Responses · Medicine · Nursing · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare · Health Policy