Volume 26, Issue 1, August 2016, Pages 7–13
Sanjaya Saxena1 and Mamta Chauhan2
1 Registrar, State Institute of Health and Family Welfare, Rajasthan, Jaipur, India
2 Associate Professor, State Institute of Health and Family Welfare, Rajasthan, Jaipur, India
Original language: English
Copyright © 2016 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Background: Access to public health care may be restricted for old slum dwellers due to many reasons pertaining to health care system itself and socio economic conditions in slums objective. This study of elderly slum dwellers attempts to find out these factors affecting accessibility of public health services with an aim to propose measures for better service delivery to the poor elderly population in the slum. Methodology: 125 elderly aged 60 and above were randomly selected from Jawahar Nagar Urban slum of Jaipur, Rajasthan. Structured interview schedules were developed, field tested and used to interview elderly slum dwellers. Result: Out of 125 elderly people, 73.6% respondents were in the age group of 60-70, with 56.8% women and 43.2 % men. 78.4% elderly people were illiterate and just 0.8% had studied up to 12th standard.56% elderly population was dependent on others as they did not have any source of income. 12.812.8% were living alone and 44% were living with their children. 33.3 % think overall public health services are affordable to them, whereas despite highly subsidized cost of care 40% found it not affordable. The allopathic system of treatment is acceptable to the elderly slum dwellers. According to 40.8% elderly, the quality of services is better in private sector >for minor illnesses the facility of choice is nearby dispensary and reason is short distance. The facility of choice during serious illnesses and emergencies is a private hospital and reason is that there is no better care available nearby. 78.26 % elderly were aware about the free treatment facility available at Government health centres but unaware elderly have not accessed any public health facility. 77.6% elderly didn’t have free health care card mostly due to unawareness. Other barriers were Behaviour of service providers (88.3%), Distance from Home (64.7%), Transport Facility (82.4%), Amenities at health facility (88.3%), and convenience for attendants (88.3%). Conclusions: Though the elderly people of the slum agreed the cost of care and effectiveness is better at public health care facilities but their accessibility to public health care is restricted mostly because of long waiting time and behaviour of health care providers. There is lack of sensitization among health care providers regarding needs of old persons.
Author Keywords: elderly, slum dwellers, Public Health Facility, Private Health Facility.
Sanjaya Saxena1 and Mamta Chauhan2
1 Registrar, State Institute of Health and Family Welfare, Rajasthan, Jaipur, India
2 Associate Professor, State Institute of Health and Family Welfare, Rajasthan, Jaipur, India
Original language: English
Copyright © 2016 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Background: Access to public health care may be restricted for old slum dwellers due to many reasons pertaining to health care system itself and socio economic conditions in slums objective. This study of elderly slum dwellers attempts to find out these factors affecting accessibility of public health services with an aim to propose measures for better service delivery to the poor elderly population in the slum. Methodology: 125 elderly aged 60 and above were randomly selected from Jawahar Nagar Urban slum of Jaipur, Rajasthan. Structured interview schedules were developed, field tested and used to interview elderly slum dwellers. Result: Out of 125 elderly people, 73.6% respondents were in the age group of 60-70, with 56.8% women and 43.2 % men. 78.4% elderly people were illiterate and just 0.8% had studied up to 12th standard.56% elderly population was dependent on others as they did not have any source of income. 12.812.8% were living alone and 44% were living with their children. 33.3 % think overall public health services are affordable to them, whereas despite highly subsidized cost of care 40% found it not affordable. The allopathic system of treatment is acceptable to the elderly slum dwellers. According to 40.8% elderly, the quality of services is better in private sector >for minor illnesses the facility of choice is nearby dispensary and reason is short distance. The facility of choice during serious illnesses and emergencies is a private hospital and reason is that there is no better care available nearby. 78.26 % elderly were aware about the free treatment facility available at Government health centres but unaware elderly have not accessed any public health facility. 77.6% elderly didn’t have free health care card mostly due to unawareness. Other barriers were Behaviour of service providers (88.3%), Distance from Home (64.7%), Transport Facility (82.4%), Amenities at health facility (88.3%), and convenience for attendants (88.3%). Conclusions: Though the elderly people of the slum agreed the cost of care and effectiveness is better at public health care facilities but their accessibility to public health care is restricted mostly because of long waiting time and behaviour of health care providers. There is lack of sensitization among health care providers regarding needs of old persons.
Author Keywords: elderly, slum dwellers, Public Health Facility, Private Health Facility.
How to Cite this Article
Sanjaya Saxena and Mamta Chauhan, “Assessment of accessibility and utilization of public health services by elderly slum dwellers in Jaipur city,” International Journal of Innovation and Scientific Research, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 7–13, August 2016.
