A Study on Challenges to Utilization of Health Services among Physically Disabled Patients: A Case Study of Provincial General Hospital Kurunegala Sri Lanka
Abstract
Introduction: Utilization of health services among physically disabled people is poor and they face various challenges for the utilization of health services than the normal population due to their disability. Objectives: To describe the challenges for the utilization of health services among physically disabled patients attending Orthopedic clinics, Provincial General Hospital Kurunegala (PGHK). Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted using an interviewer administered questionnaire. Using the patient attendance register as the sampling frame, 427 of patients who attend the Orthopedic clinics, PGHK were recruited. Results: Among the study participants (53.63%) who had needs for utilizing health services after getting disabled, 48.47% utilized health services. The most frequent challenge among those who utilized health services after getting disabled was transport difficulty. The most frequent reason for underutilization of health services among those who had needs to utilize health services was poor general health/disability. Conclusion & Recommendations: Physically disabled people attending Orthopedic clinics, PGHK showed poor utilization of health services due to various challenges following their disability. These issues should be addressed to improve their utilization of health services.
Terms and conditions of Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License apply to all published manuscripts. This Journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. This licence allows authors to use all articles, data sets, graphics and appendices in data mining applications, search engines, web sites, blogs and other platforms by providing appropriate reference. The journal allows the author(s) to hold the copyright without restrictions and will retain publishing rights without restrictions.
A competing interest exists when professional judgment concerning the validity of research is influenced by a secondary interest, such as financial gain. We require that our authors reveal all possible conflicts of interest in their submitted manuscripts.
The Editor reserves the right to shorten and adjust texts. Significant changes in the text will be agreed with the Authors.
