SOCIO-CULTURAL FACTORS IN THE USE OF HEALTH CARE SERVICES IN NSUKKA TOWN

SOCIO-CULTURAL FACTORS IN THE USE OF HEALTH CARE SERVICES IN NSUKKA TOWN

ABSTRACT

This study is on the socio-cultural factors in the use of health care services in Nsukka town of Enugu State. For the study, 543 respondents were sampled across the three (3) autonomous communities that make up Nsukka town using questionnaire. Also for qualitative data, 24 people were interviewed of which 12 were health care givers and 12 community leaders. This work is divided into five chapters. In chapter one, the problems, objective and significance of the study were highlighted. The researcher also defines some of the concept used in the study given brief background to the study. Theoretical and empirical literature on the subject matter was reviewed in chapter two. In chapter three, researcher presented the methodology, which includes sample size, sampling procedure, instrument for data collection and method of data analysis. In analyzing the data in chapter four, percentages were used to answer the research questions and Chi-square was used to test the hypotheses. The result of the study reveals that quite a number of people (25%) believe that one can only visit the hospital when one is seriously ill or suffering from a chronic sickness. The poor attitude of people to modern medicine is thus anchored on so many factors of which on of them is the cultural and belief system of people about illness.  In chapter five, the researcher discussed and summarized other major findings, implication of the study was stated and recommendations were made based on the findings which include the need for enlightenment and educative programmes in other to improve and promote health care services in Nigeria.