The plight of chronic filarial lymphoedema patients in choice of health care and health care providers in Pondicherry, India.

Lymphatic filariasis has a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations with asymptomatic parasite carriers at one end and irreversible lymphoedema of extremities at the other. Irreversible lymphoedema of extremities is one of the disabling conditions that drive the affected patients to seek treatment from various systems of medicines and health care providers. This study attempts to map the care seeking pattern and behaviour of patients with chronic filarial lymphoedema of lower limbs in an urban area. Consecutive filarial lymphoedema patients from the VCRC filariasis clinic were recruited for the study. A pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire was used for interrogation of the patients. A total of 56 lymphoedema patients participated in the study. Majority (94.6%) of the patients sought medical management only. There was no difference (P>0.05) between the proportion of patients attending government (37.5%) and private (44.3%) medical care facilities There was also no difference in the proportion of patients' first consultations in private or government health care facilities. About 57.1% patients approaching governmental institutions opted for primary/secondary health care system. No particular sequential pattern of seeking health care was observed and the 56 study subjects followed 40 treatment-seeking routes by switching from one care provider to the other. The causes of not coming to the clinic for further check-up were 'no acute attacks' (30.4%), 'reduction in oedema volume' (21.7%), 'advised treatment being taken at home' (26.1%) and 'loss of daily wages' (21.7%). The study highlights the need to involve the private medical sector in morbidity management of filarial lymphoedema and to make governmental health facilities more accessible and user-friendly.