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(iv) Tertiary care hospital
Data were collected from the outpatlent case records at weekly intervals, over a period
of 1 year There was a total of 1,443 children between 5-15 years who attended the
hospital dunng the period Of them, 693 (48.0%' were girls and 750 (52 0%) boys. The
important spectrum of illnesses seen in then: is shown in Table 5.28. Infectlous
d~sorders (32.2%) (excluding skin and ear infections), skin disorders (15.5%), worm
~nfestation (I23%) and ear d~sorders (11 0%) were the most common ailments found in
them Among the infections, respiratory tract infection was the most common
accounting for 87 5% of all infect~ons. Comparing the ailments for whlch these ch~ldren
attended the hospital, no significant difference was observed between the genders,
except for card~ovascular disorders, for which more number of boys than girls attended
the hospital (p < 0 05; Table 5.28)
5.4.4 Health seeking behavior
(a) Ethnograph~c Methods
People generally followed the allopath~c treatment, although home remed~es and
ind~genous medlclnes were also glven for some illnesses For mlnor ~llnesses most 0'
the respondents (1561160) to the structured quest~onna~re wanted to take the~r ch~ldren
to an allopath~c physlclan The remalnlng 4 lndlv~duals wanted to glve ind~genous
medic~ne Many respondents (53 1%) sa~d they would go to the local PHC and 32 5%
sa~d they would go lo a pr~vate phys~c~an For serlous illnesses all of them preferred to
take the~r ,hlldren for allopathlc treatment Most respondents (98 1%) preferred a
Private physic~an since the care was better and cure was bel~eved to be faster They