Healthcare-Seeking Behavior among the Chakma Ethnic Group in Bangladesh: Can Accessibility and Cultural Beliefs Shape Healthcare Utilization?

Abstract

Existing studies lack qualitative information on the perceived reasons for ethnic minority groups' healthcare choices, attitudes toward healthcare services, and common practices based on traditional cultural belief systems in Bangladesh. This study noted the important influence of culture and beliefs with regard to availing healthcare services. Informal sector providers such as para-professionals and traditional healers take the lead in rendering physically, financially, and culturally accessible healthcare services in the context of under-utilization of public healthcare facilities. Salient factors determining the choice of therapy were the perceived causes of illness and physical and financial access to the health services. These drivers of health seeking behavior in an increasingly pluralistic healthcare system need to be taken into account to strengthen the current healthcare delivery system and to design specific health education and healthcare promotion programs for the poor, hard-to-reach, and under-served ethnic minority.