Factors affecting the utilization of public health care services among households in Lahore district, Pakistan
The contemporary research literature, in the case of the public health care system in Pakistan, has continuously reported that the public health care services offered to the citizens of the country are underutilized. However, many factors motivate or trigger the utilization of public health car...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2019
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/89853/1/FPSK%28m%29%202020%2025%20-%20ir.pdf |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | The contemporary research literature, in the case of the public health care system in
Pakistan, has continuously reported that the public health care services offered to the citizens of
the country are underutilized. However, many factors motivate or trigger the utilization of public
health care services among the citizens. A public health care unit is an integral part of a social
and medical organization, the function of which is to provide for the population complete health
care curative and preventive. Increasing awareness of the general public regarding healthcare
issues, public expectations from healthcare providers, availability of multiple healthcare
resources to some people and increasing costs of treatment all have a definite bearing on the
utilization of health care services from public healthcare units. There are various
problems faced in utilization of public health care services like availability of
equipment’s, overcrowding, delay response in emergency, cleanliness and lack of proper guidance
that creates a lot of problems for the patients and for this purpose following study was aimed to
determine the factors affecting the utilization of Public healthcare services among the household
of the Lahore District.
The objectives of the study is to determine the factors affecting the utilization of public
healthcare services among household of Lahore District.
It was cross-sectional based study in Lahore district. A total of 500 household heads of Lahore
district were included. Households were selected from Union councils, where there were
about 1500- 2000 houses in each union council. Proportionate random sampling technique
was adopted and information was gathered using validated and reliable self-administered
questionnaire. The dependent variable was utilization of health care services and independent
variables were sociodemographic factors, healthcare facility factors and environmental
factors. Data was analyzed
through SPSS 23.0. Frequencies and percentages were calculated and data was presented in tables and figures. Chi-square test was used to measure association and
Multinomial Regression analysis was used to determine predictors.
Among 500 respondents, 77.0% were males and 45.8% were 21-30 years old. Respondents with
matriculation certificate had high percentage (40.6%) and 87.8% respondents has family monthly
income <25,000 PKR rupees.
Respondents who visited health care facilities two times during last four illness spells was
reported as 45.8%. Among respondents, 88.6% confirmed the availability of duty doctors, 21.8% were
satisfied with medical examination and 70.4% were prescribed medical test while 18.4% were
suggested by staff to go to any private clinic for test. Only 15.2% respondents said that
behaviour of hospital staff other than doctors/medical professionals was satisfactory,
58.0% respondents waiting time for consultation in emergency was <1/2 hour, 63.0% were given
medicine and advised fully about the disease, 23.2% respondents faced problem in getting bed, 24.2%
got operation accessories/medicines from hospital and 28.4% were advised about follow up visits.
Amounting 24.6% respondents said they will visit again to the public health care facility. As many
as 88.4% respondents confirmed that proper sitting is available in waiting area of healthcare unit,
84.6% said cleanliness was satisfactory and 22.0% said clean water for drinking was available
while 23.4% respondents said that washrooms of healthcare facilities were neat and
clean. In accordance with the findings, family income affected the hospital visits
significantly (AOR: 2.917; 95% CI: 0.000-1.35x10⁴⁶). Given this, the impact of education of
respondents is also computed to be significant (AOR: 0.64; 95% CI: .239-3.76 at option5). The
behaviour of hospital staff was also significant (AOR: 0.898; 95% CI: .416-1.93) and the effect of
cleanliness (AOR: 1.51; 95% CI: .753-2.53). Lastly, the effect of waiting time was also significant
(AOR: 3.6; 95% CI: .395-3.29x10¹).
The study showed that there was an association between socio-demographic factors, health-care
facility factors and environmental factors with the utilization of public health care
services among household head of Lahore district. Study revealed that gender and age do not
predict the hospital visits, which implies that gender and age does not affect the number of visits
by the patients to public health hospitals. it can be determined that irrespective of hospital
conditions, and factors age groups and gender does not react as compared to the education,
and family income. This is a new empirical finding that education affects the behavior of
patients, and as does family income; thus a person with higher education and enough salary
to afford private treatment will not make as frequent visits as others who are less educated and
have less salary comparatively. Furthermore, the waiting time in emergency, behavior of doctors and
paramedical staff, environment of the healthcare facility also significantly
predicts the number of visits of patients. |
|---|