Abstract
Road traffic injuries represent a classic case of economic uncertainty for households. In the context of uncertainty, choice of health care facilities and care seeking process is interest of perennial concern. Understanding the injury care seeking process forms the central objective of the paper. It also tries to narrate the process of seeking care between different providers of care, levels of care and duration of treatment, determinants of choice of health care etc. The study utilised primary data collected from the injured (302 cases) who were discharged from selected public and private health facilities from three districts of Kerala, India. The injured had 488 overall interactions with medical care institutions/personnel yielding an average number of 1.6 interactions per injured person; 60.2 per cent of the interactions were accounted by public health care institutions with 54 per cent of the injured choosing them as their first point of contact. Length of treatment at different health facilities by the injured indicate that more than 70 per cent were treated as outpatient (including observation cases) and the rest were prescribed hospitalized treatment at the first pint of contact. Share of public sector health care institutions treating mild, moderate and severe injuries is 55.5 per cent, 54.6 per cent and 48.6 per cent respectively. In sum, public sector is the preferred choice of injury care seeking for moderate and severe road traffic injuries (cost of treatment, poor economic status) while mild injuries are primarily accounted for by the private sector.
Highlights
Human beings' material progress has attained unprecedented heights especially during the last century largely promoted by increasing physical mobility
The injured had 488 overall interactions with medical care institutions/personnel yielding an average number of 1.6 interactions per injured person; 60.2 per cent of the interactions were accounted by public health care institutions with 54 per cent of the injured choosing them as their first point of contact
The referring of patients may be done according to the assessment of severity of injury by the physician and referral pattern is almost well-defined in public sector and loosely defined in the private sector
Summary
Human beings' material progress has attained unprecedented heights especially during the last century largely promoted by increasing physical mobility. Road Traffic Accidents (RTAs) are generally considered as a price of material progress of human beings. Motor vehicle accidents have been believed as 'accidents', random events that are inevitable outcomes of road transport (Gumber 1994; WHO 2002). The mobility has not been costless and over the decades, the world has lost · millions of human lives. It is estimated that more than 30 million individuals lost their lives and the hopes of the 30 million's dependants perished on roads since the first pedestrian casualty reported in 1898 (IFoRCaRC 1998). How to cite this article (APA): Godwin S. Health Care Seeking Behaviour of Non-Fatal Road Traffic
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