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HEALTH SEEKING BEHAVIOR AMONG ADOLESCENT STUDENTS IN COASTAL DISTRICT OF SOUTH INDIA



Objectives: The study was designed to assess the socio-demographic profile, to determine the health seeking behavior and to elicit the socio-demographic factors associated with health seeking behavior among adolescents. Methods: The study was a Community based Cross sectional study, carried out during May-June, 2014 among 440 adolescent students studying in 8th, 9th and 10th std at two public & two private High Schools at Mangalore (India). A Pre designed, semi structured questionnaire was used as the tool for data collection. Approval from Institutional Ethics Committee (IEC) & the concerned school authorities were obtained, followed by self-administration of questionnaire and data analysis. Results: The mean age of our study population of 440 students, was found to be 14.74 with standard deviation of 1.365. 67.3% (34.3% males & 33% females) had various Physical issues and 21.1% population suffered from psychological problems. For the various issues, 47.3% adolescents seek help from their parents, while 39.5% from doctors. 29.8% students considered inconvenient timings as the major hindrance in seeking health care followed by family’s perception and lack of privacy in the clinics. 90% of the study population was unaware of the SNEHA clinics run exclusively for adolescents in Karnataka, India. Conclusion: Unawareness regarding adolescent clinics remained the main focus of our study that emphasized on the fact that newer outreach innovative interventions may be needed to create a sustained demand for services. Further work-up is needed in the field of adolescent health services and made available to them from the ground level itself. The focus must be to make them aware of various health-care facilities for their various problems and issues.