Myths, Fallacies and Misconceptions: Applying Social Marketing for Promoting Appropriate Health Seeking Behavior in Pakistan

Abstract

Myths and fallacies have existed ever since societies began, influencing the perceptions about health, and the cause and cure of health related problems. The role of such myths in governing the health and health seeking behavior of people is quite explicit. Misconceptions about breast-feeding, pre-lacteal feed, weaning, dietary habits and other health related matters are commonly heard in the cultures of developing countries. False perceptions have undoubtedly an impact on the health seeking behavior. People coming from the low socio-economic strata in rural areas suffer the most. They lack access to formal health care services and are unable to afford specialized medical care. This gives rise to alternative health seeking behaviors. A considerable majority of people prefer to go to spiritual healers, quacks and other non-formal health providers for the treatment of their ailments. This paper has reviewed a variety of myths, fallacies and misconceptions collectively in the cultural context and has attempted to relate them to the health seeking behaviors of Pakistani people. The paper is based on the contemporary literature review and library work, focusing on finding the feasible strategies to address a variety of myths and misconceptions. Since myths have many adverse implications on the health of the people, an effective way of motivating low income and high risk people to adopt healthy behavior is ‘social marketing’. Creating ‘health promotion committees’ at village level sounds like another doable strategy to ameliorate the situation in order to educate people to take care of not only their own health but of the future generations as well.