Abstract:

This study was designed to study about the preferred health care system of the people residing at Arpookara, Kottayam district in India. In this study investigator tried to find out the common health problems, preferred place for treatment, preferred system of medicine, main obstacles to access the better treatment and expectations from government for better health care delivery, of the study population. The populations for the study were the people residing at Arpookara, Kottayam district in India which includes 410 households with 2360 members. One hundred households (samples) from the study population were selected so that findings can be generalized for the population. Simple random technique is used for samples selection. Samples include 100 households with 456 members, out of which 243 members are males and rest 213 are females. The tool used for data collection is an interview schedule which consists of 2 Performa, Performa 1 and Performa 2. Performa 1 seeks personal details while Performa 2 seeks information about common health problems, preferred place for treatment, preferred system of medicine, main obstacles to access the better treatment and expectations from government for better health care delivery, of the study population. After the data collection its analysis is done. Members of 73 (73%) households are preferring government hospital for treatment while private hospital, private practitioners and traditional healing centers are preferred by 19 (19%), 6(6%) and 2(2%) house members respectively. In 94 (94%) houses, Allopathic system of medicine is preferred while Ayurvedic and Homeopathy system of medicine are preferred by only 4 (4%) and 2 (2%) houses respectively. The major health problems of members (above age of 6 years) are Chikungunya-39 (9.51%), Jaundice-17 (4.41%), Typhoid-1 (0.24%), Bronchial Asthama-1 (0.24%), Viral fever--1 (0.24%), Coronary heart disease-2 (0.48%), Stroke- 3 (0.73%) and Diabetes-1 (0.24%). About 345 (84.14%) members were not suffered from any disease since last year. According to 56 (56%) households both the Service unavailability and financial problem are the main obstacles to access better treatment while 18 (18%) households suggests that service unavailability only and rest 26(26%) households suggested that main obstacle is financial problem. for the better healthcare delivery, 44 (44%) households expects availability of pure drinking water, regular cleaning of surroundings and primary health centre from government. About 31 (31%) households’ needs pure drinking water and rest 16 (16%) households needs regular cleaning of surroundings. Rest 9 (9%) households expects primary health center at their ward. On the basis of findings of this study, Researcher recommended his suggestions to higher healthcare administrative staff to take preventive measures for prevention and control of diseases and thus too maintain a high standard of health.

Keywords: Healthcare System; Treatment Place; Medicine System; Health Problem; Obstacle.

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