Abstract
Afghanistan has made strides in increasing access to health care services since 2001 however it is still battling with poor utilization of services. In order to enhance demand for services a study was conducted to explore answers to the questions on knowledge, attitude and practices of communities in relation to healthcare services. The study design was cross-sectional qualitative spanning in six provinces representing geographical and ethno cultural regions of the country. In each of the six provinces, two districts were selected through mixed sampling technique representing urban-rural population. A total of 48 villages were selected in twelve districts. The study was conducted from September 2009 to March 2010. The study highlights poor heath seeking behavior associated with physical accessibility including high cost of transportation, socio-cultural barriers for women, awareness and trust for public health facilities. The system based issues adds to prevailing access related barriers such as privacy, efficiency and availability within health facilities; lack of female physicians and, aspects of behavior and attitude, and governance issues.
Highlights
The splurge in coordinated exit of international forces, Afghanistan’s poor state of health affairs has generated sense of urgency and concerns worldwide
Despite several challenges faced by this war torn country, development has been made in access to health services and health outcomes since 2001
Empirical evidence shows that there has been a 136% increase in the number of functioning primary health care facilities in 2002 to 2007, rise in the proportion of facilities having female physicians, nurses, or midwives from 24.8% to 83%; the prenatal care coverage increased to 32% and DTP3 coverage increased by 35% and the quality of care in publicly financed facilities has increased by 22% since 2004 [1]
Summary
The splurge in coordinated exit of international forces, Afghanistan’s poor state of health affairs has generated sense of urgency and concerns worldwide. Empirical evidence shows that there has been a 136% increase in the number of functioning primary health care facilities in 2002 to 2007, rise in the proportion of facilities having female physicians, nurses, or midwives from 24.8% to 83%; the prenatal care coverage increased to 32% and DTP3 coverage increased by 35% and the quality of care in publicly financed facilities has increased by 22% since 2004 [1]. Despite these significant improvements, most of the health indicators still hover near the bottom of international ranking. Given the situation it is necessary that MoPH addresses the barriers at the community level in order to achieve improved health outcomes through utilization of services by population who needs the most
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
