Gender, socioeconomic development and health-seeking behaviour in Bangladesh

In efforts to reduce gender and socioeconomic disparities in the health of populations, the provision of medical services alone is clearly inadequate. While socioeconomic development is assumed important in rectifying gender and socioeconomic inequities in health care access, service use and ultimat ely, outcomes, empirical evidence of its impact is limited. Using cross-sec tional data from the BRAG-IGDDR,B Joint Research Project in Matlab, Banglad esh, this paper examines the impact of membership in BRAC's integrated Rura l Development Programme (RDP) on gender equity and health-seeking behaviour . Differences in health care seeking are explored by comparing a sample of households who are BRAG members with a sample of BRAG-eligible non-members. Individuals from the BRAG member group report significantly less morbidity (15-day recall) than those from the non-member group, although no gender d ifferences in the prevalence of self-reported morbidity are apparent in eit her group. sick individuals from BRAG member households tend to seek care l ess frequently than non-members. When treatment is sought, BRAG members rel y to a greater extent on home remedies, traditional care, and unqualified a llopaths than non-member households. While reported treatment seeking from qualified allopaths is more prevalent in the BRAC group, non-members use th e para-professional services of community health care workers almost twice as frequently. In both BRAG member and non-member groups, women suffering i llness report seeking care significantly less often than men. The policy an d programmatic implications;bf between group and gender differences in care seeking are discussed with reference to the literature. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.