Abstract
Background: Orthopedic injuries or fractures among adults are a serious public health issue due to the rising incidence of high speed road traffic accidents in India. Selecting a treatment approach and a facility to get treated from, poses a challenge in musculoskeletal injuries in India. In low resource settings like India, availability and timely access to surgical care facility is crucial for fracture management.
Materials & Methods: The purpose of this study was to explore the processes in decision-making following a fracture in an adult person, identify cause for delays in obtaining care, and the potential barriers and facilitators to seeking appropriate care in time.
Results: In assessing such Health seeking behaviour in the present study we found that a considerable percentage of patients (21.5%) sought their first medical attention to Quacks and local doctors (23%) who may be a qualified doctor or a so called Registered Medical Practitioner (RMP) and 31.7% of patients attending quack had poor outcome as compared to19.5% for local doctors whereas 36.8% of patients attending our hospital (NBMC&H) had excellent outcome (p=0.020).
Conclusion: This study provides important information on issues beyond the need for in-hospital care pathways and evidence-based protocols for the management of older adults with fractures in India. The findings show huge difficulty of patients with fractures in having access to hospital care, from the pre-hospital services to hospital admission and surgery—which demands improvements in the entire Indian healthcare system.
Keywords: Care seeking, Behavior, Fractures, Orthopedic injuries.
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Corresponding Author
Dr Partha Pratim Pal
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DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18535/jmscr/v6i6.96
