Study of rural health centre services utilization by adolescents in district Muzaffarnagar (Uttar Pradesh-India).

ABSTRACT

Background: Currently adolescents mortality and morbidity in rural areas is featured by many causes such as communicable as well as non-communicable diseases apart from accidents, suicides etc which lead to illness or premature death later in their life and their usage of rural health centre services is also emerging to be a new issue. That’s why it is important to study this area critically. Aims & Objective: To study the rural health centre services utilization by adolescents. Materials and Methods: This was prospective study carried out from 1st January 2013 to 31st December 2013. The study was carried out at the rural health and training center (RHTC), Bilaspur of Muzaffarnagar Medical College, Muzaffarnagar (UP) which covers 6 villages. All adolescents attending OPD in year 2013 according to the WHO defined criteria of adolescents (10-19 years) and who gave consent were included and enrolled in this study. Adolescents who did not attend OPD and those who did not give consent for participation in study at RHTC Bilaspur were excluded. Results: The study found that the majority of female patients utilized OPD services of RHTC (53.3%) but main health care service utilized among adolescents was Medical Problem (20.5%) whereas Obstetrical & Gynaecology problems were least (13.8%). Among the other services; most common utilized were dressing for injuries (11.3%) and least utilized were, immunization services (0.8%). Conclusion: The usage of health services utilization of RHTC suggests that there are emerging problems in different health specialties among adolescents, so this area needs further research in future studies.