Women’s knowledge and practice regarding primary health care services in Garhwal region of Uttarakhand

ABSTRACT

Background: Primary health care (PHC) relies heavily on the contributions of women, particularly in the area of health education, it raises their self-esteem and empowers them to serve their communities in a number of ways by improving women's health and the health of their families and by training women both as care givers and as health educators. Primary health care is the first level of contact of the individuals, the family and the community with the national health system bringing health care as close as possible to where the people live and work It should be based on practical, scientifically sound and socially acceptable methods and technology. It should be made universally accessible to the individuals and the family in the community through their full participation. This study projected to evaluate the knowledge and practice of women regarding health care services and their source of information.Methods: Stratified multistage random sampling of the target population was done. In the first stage villages were selected by simple random sampling technique. In the second stage population for the study purpose was selected from the selected village again by simple random sampling technique.Results: In this present study knowledge regarding health care services were higher and found satisfactory, health functionaries were found to be more informative as compared to media and others sources of information.Conclusions: From the results found in this study it can be said that women’s knowledge regarding health care services was found satisfactory.