Dominant barriers in accessing modern health care services among vulnerable community in central India: An explicit observation

Abstract

The study aimed to identify barriers/impediments in accessing health care facilities in vulnerable tribal community. A community-based cross-sectional observation on health service utilization was carried out among the vulnerable Saharia tribe in Sheopur district of Madhya Pradesh. The data was gathered by skilled investigators from influencing community members during August to October 2020. Relevant information’s was collected from 212 respondents from 40 villages. Out of 40 village, 16(40%) of which were health facility villages located <5 km radius of health centers i.e. PHCs, SHCs and HWCs, and 24(60%) from non-health facility villages located >5 km radius of any of these health centers. The study found that three common barriers emerged; majorly as lack of awareness, misconception of child immunization and inadequate behavior of health care workers in both health facility village (located<5 km radius of health centers) and non-health facility village(located>5 km radius of health centers). Further, these barriers are considerably affected in non-health facility village along with the public transportation facility and poor road conditions (45.3%) in comparison to health facility villages’ (32.1%). Identified barriers in accessing health care facility is more startling in non-health facility villages as compared to health facility villages. These explored barriers need to be minimized through effective implementation research and strategy among vulnerable community in favor of achieving universal health coverage (UHC) particular in rural and remote regions.