Health care seeking behavior of adolescents: comparative study of two service delivery models.
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2008-09-06
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Abstract
OBJECTIVES: To assess the perceived health problems and help seeking behaviour and utilization pattern of adolescent health clinics.
METHODS: A pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaire was administered to 360 school going adolescents who were selected by stratified random sampling from two sectors of Chandigarh where services were being provided by a school-based and dispensary-based adolescent health clinic.
RESULTS: Majority (81%) of the adolescents reported having some health problem during last three months prior to the survey; predominant (60%) problems were psychological and behavioural in nature. To resolve these problems boys consulted mainly friends/peers (48%) while girls consulted their mothers (63%). Compared to the dispensary-based adolescent health clinic, utilisation was significantly higher in a school-based clinic where proportion of psychological or behavioural problems reported was also significantly higher (P<0.01).
CONCLUSION: Adolescents have greater counselling needs for psychosocial problems than for medical problems. School-based adolescent health clinic was utilized more often than the dispensary-based clinic particularly for psychosocial problems.
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Kumar R, Prinja S, Lakshmi PV. Health care seeking behavior of adolescents: comparative study of two service delivery models. Indian Journal of Pediatrics. 2008 Sep; 75(9): 895-9