Volume : 3, Issue : 4, April - 2014

Health–Seeking Behaviour and Ante Natal Period Among the Women of Jannath Nagar: An Urban Slum of Dharwad Town (Karnataka)

Ashwini A. Dandappanavar, C G Hussain Khan

Abstract :

Health promotion programmes since a long time have been delivering services on the basis of an underlying assumption that, providing knowledge about causes of ill-health and choices available will go a long way towards promoting a change in individual behavior, and towards more beneficial health-seeking behavior. Paucity of data on health status especially maternal health indicators is a problem of major concern in many developing countries. The poor health status of slum-dwellers usually gets obscured by the statistics when compared to the relatively well-off urbanites. The worst-affected picture is of those living in the densely-packed urban slums where access to quality maternal healthcare is limited. Access to water, sanitation and health services, income, living conditions, unstable occupations yielding low incomes etc., are a major source of many conflicts facing the slums. These factors in combination with the norms, values, beliefs, social institutions and the concepts of acceptability and adaptability embedded in a cultural-setting become the cumulative driving forces behind maternal-health and the health services in turn are destined to face the challenge of meeting the quality services. Understanding of slum culture is very crucial to gain insight into health-seeking behaviour of the people. This is an attempt to understand and examine the determinants influencing health-seeking behaviour during the ante natal period among the women of Jannath-Nagar slum. Data was collected by subjecting women to in-depth interviews. Findings reveal that the pregnancy period is governed by the health-seeking behavior which rests on the beliefs of the people in a context. The present study highlights the importance of contextual influences on health outcomes. Factors promoting ‘good’ health-seeking behaviors are not rooted solely in the individual, but they have a more dynamic, collective, interactive element for and that is nothing but the community.