The Power of Culture in Selecting Health Care Providers in Rural Bangladesh: An Ethno Scientific Analysis

Abstract

This study examines the decision process of household members in visiting local health care providers. It also explores the effect of various household level socioeconomic factors on motivating rural people to visit traditional versus modern health care providers in rural Bangladesh. I used the Population, Environment, and Poverty data collected from eight villages of rural Bangladesh in 1998 in addition to self-collected ethnographic survey information. The data suggest that a large majority of rural households attempt to visit locally available untrained health care providers first, and then trained doctors as the sickness worsens. The data also suggest that socio-cultural and economic factors are important in shaping their decision to visit traditional as opposed to modern health care providers. Training the traditional and untrained health care providers will be a wise option to ensure health care to the villagers.

Citation

Molla, A.R. (2007), "The Power of Culture in Selecting Health Care Providers in Rural Bangladesh: An Ethno Scientific Analysis", Wood, D.C. (Ed.) The Economics of Health and Wellness: Anthropological Perspectives (Research in Economic Anthropology, Vol. 26), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 35-53. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0190-1281(07)26002-0