Field Guide for the Study of Health-Seeking Behaviour at the Household LEVEL

Abstract

In 1983 the United Nations University and the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) developed a program to involve anthropologists and others using anthropological methodologies in examining the extent to which the nutritional and health practices of families are affected by programs of primary health care that include nutrition activities. Projects were initiated in 11 countries. This guide is valuable to researchers and others interested in undertaking similar studies of the impact of programs on household behavior. The major goal of the research guided by this manual is to analyze the impact of existing government primary health care programs on the perceptions beliefs knowledge and health-seeking behavior of representative households in populations served by these programs. Assessing the health and nutrition knowledge beliefs and practices of the selected households; is the factors affecting peoples perception of the primary health care program; and the extent to which the various available health resources particularly the primary health care system have affected understanding of health and illness and health-seeking behavior is described. Information from observations and interviews provides a general description of the study community. This description includes geographical location demographic distribution of the population and socioeconomic characteristics of the community. Household level data are collected from surveys or growth monitoring. The core of the study methodology consists of a series of in-depth interviews with members of selected families to find out their perceptions of the effect of primary health care programs. 10 specific interview guides have been developed. These cover definitions of health and illness; common illness in children and possible solutions; diet of mothers and children; diet of sick children; morbidity history of all household members; morbidity history of the children; inventory of remedies in the house; history of last/present pregnancy and delivery; use of health resources; and use and experience with official health resources. Ethnographic methods are described as well as selection training and supervision of field workers and data analysis methods.