CM2.3-5 | CM2.3-5 | Health Seeking Behaviour and Community Relationships — Summary & Reflection

KEY TAKEAWAYS

This module examined the determinants of health-seeking behaviour using the Andersen Behavioural Model — predisposing (beliefs, attitudes, socio-demographics), enabling (income, insurance, transport, provider availability), and need (perceived vs evaluated illness) — and the evidence that under-utilisation is a patterned, socially determined phenomenon, not a random individual choice. Social psychology concepts — attitudes, beliefs, and descriptive and injunctive social norms — explain how community dynamics amplify or suppress health behaviour; community relationships and social capital are protective resources that effective health programmes deliberately engage. Poverty is a bidirectional driver of disease, measured by the Tendulkar and Rangarajan poverty lines; India's social security architecture (MGNREGA, NFSA, PM-JAY, ICDS, PMMVY) addresses enabling barriers at scale, though targeting and implementation gaps remain. Assessment of barriers uses structured probing interviews at the individual level and surveys plus qualitative methods at community level; the action response operates simultaneously across individual, family, community, and health system tiers.

REFLECT

Think about a time when you or someone you know delayed seeking care or chose a traditional remedy before consulting a doctor. Looking back through the Andersen model, which categories of barriers were operating? Were they predisposing (a belief that it would get better, social norms about not showing weakness), enabling (cost, distance, waiting time), or need-based (genuinely uncertain about severity)? How would you — as a doctor who now understands these forces — approach a conversation with a patient who has made a similar delay, without judgement and with genuine practical help?