Sociological literature indicates gender differentiation in both health status and use of health services. It has been observed that women did not complain of any medical problem until it started interfering with their daily activities. Therefore, a cross-sectional community-based survey was conducted in lower socioeconomic group areas of Delhi to document the health care-seeking behavior of elderly women for urogenital symptoms and also to explore the reasons that influence them.

The study aimed at documenting the health care-seeking behavior of elderly women belonging to lower socioeconomic group for urogenital symptoms and also to improve their health care-seeking behavior by using information education and communication (IEC) and behavior change communication (BCC) strategy.

Stratified random sampling technique was applied for selection of 5 zones out of the 12 Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) zones. The zones were selected according to their size by using probability proportional to size sampling. The list of colonies was taken from the website of MCD. Then an equal number of 20 colonies from this list was selected by simple random sampling from each of the five zones. From these 100 colonies, a total of 824 women aged 50 years and above were identified through snowball sampling and were interviewed with the help of an interviewer administered questionnaire.

Analysis of responses of representative sample of 824 women aged 50 and above in statistically selected low socioeconomic areas of National Capital Territory of Delhi revealed that 479 (58.1%) of the women were found to be suffering from urogenital problems. From these 479 women who suffered from urogenital problems, nearly 271 (56.6%) did not report the problem to their family members and 262 (54.8%) did not report it to doctors.

Based on the results of this survey, it was concluded that many elderly women do not report about their urogenital symptoms neither to their family members nor to doctors for various reasons. Therefore, the women should be made aware about the existence of effective screening and health care facilities for their problems. They should be educated about the ways to prevent these problems. The IEC and BCC strategies should be used in the lower socioeconomic group areas to improve the health care-seeking behavior of elderly women for urogenital symptoms. Steps should be taken to improve the accessibility and affordability of the services.

Bhat S, Yadav B, Singhal R, Srikanth N, Padhi MM, Singh R, Dhiman KS. A Cross-sectional Community-based Study on Healthcare seeking Behavior of Elderly Women for Urogenital Symptoms. J Res Ayurvedic Sci 2017;1(1):34-39.