Health Seeking Behaviour Barriers To Health.
                     HEALTH  SEEKING  
BEHAVIOUR  BARRIERS  TO  
HEALTH
What is Health seeking behavior?
• Health seeking behavior is a term which is used to explain the pattern of health care 
utilization among any population group and the sequence of remedial actions that 
individuals take in order to rectify perceived ill health.
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Understanding health seeking behavior
• Understanding health behavior requires knowledge of the environment context in 
which the behavior occurs. 
• Factors like emotional, cognitive, social and environmental may affect the health 
seeking behavior of an individual.
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Importance of Health seeking behavior
• This approach is useful for assessing the population needs for health care and in 
planning and evaluating health programs.
• This approach looks at health seeking behavior in a more general way.
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FACTORS AFFECTING HEALTH SEEKING 
BEHAVIOUR 
Cultural and socio-demographic factors
• Cultural beliefs and practices often lead to self-care, home remedies and consultation 
with traditional healers in rural communities.
• Advice of the elder women in the house is also very instrumental and cannot be 
ignored.
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Women’s autonomy
• Men play a paramount role in determining the health needs of a woman. Women 
suffering from an illness report less frequently for health care seeking as compared to 
men.
• The low status of women prevents them from recognizing and voicing their concerns 
about health needs. 
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Economic factors 
• The economic polarization within the society and lack of social security system make 
the poor more vulnerable in terms of affordability and choice of health provider.
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Physical accessibility
• Access to a primary health care facility is projected as a basic social right. Dissatisfaction 
with primary care services leads many people to jump to higher level hospitals for 
primary care, leading to considerable inefficiency and loss of control over efficacy and 
quality of services.
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Availability, accessibility & acceptability of health system
• Availability is one of the major determinants of health seeking behaviour. A person 
always tries to seek health care from the available sources.
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Individual perception
• Individual’s perception of illness strongly influences one’s health seeking behaviour. A 
person should understand how much he will be benefitted if he adapts certain health 
promoting behaviour or avoids certain harmful habits. 
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