Patterns of health-care utilization and morbidity in a rural community near Lahore, Pakistan

Abstract

Patterns of health-care utilization and of morbidity were investigated in a demographically defined community: the 1400 inhabitants of a rural village near Lahore, Pakistan. The data collected, by semi-monthly clinic surveys from February 1982 to January 1983, showed that 42% of the study population sought health care during the year-long study period, between one and 10 (mean 2·1) times each. Females attended the clinics twice as often as males. The 1193 person-visits that were recorded at the field clinics yielded a total of 1354 cases of various diseases. The cumulative number of clinic-visits per person fitted a negative binomial distribution, indicating that health problems were concentrated in a small portion of the population. When the patients were classified according to the International Classification of Diseases, the most common disease category was that of the respiratory system (27·6%), followed by infectious and parasitic diseases (18·7%), diseases of the skin (13·7%) and those of the nervous system and sense organs (10·9%). Classification of the cases by single disease condition indicated that diarrhoea, helminthiasis, malaria, anaemia, conjunctivitis, bronchitis, coryza, pharyngitis, tonsillitis, dyspepsia and pyoderma were the most common diseases. In view of the fact that infectious diseases continue to be a major public health problem in rural Pakistan, the need for a sound health policy that is primarily focused on preventive medicine, especially health education, is apparent.