Medicine
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This repository contains the published and unpublished research of the Faculty of Medicine by the staff members of the faculty
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Item Health seeking behavior of elders in Batticaloa district, Sri Lanka: Descriptive cross sectional study(Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Arulanandem, K.; Jayawickramarajah, P.T.; Ramanayake, R.P.J.C.; Hettige, S.; Kisokanth, G.BACKGROUND: Global population of elderly would increase by 15% in year 2025. The change in age structure affects the society in social, cultural and economic aspects of life. The provision of health care to elderly varies across most of the developing countries. Health care is an important issue for ageing population and living with chronic illnesses become a challenge. Health care services are essential for the population it serves. The health seeking behavior of elders depends on the availability of services, health problems and socio economic status. OBJECTIVE: To describe the health seeking behavior of elders in Batticaloa district, Sri Lanka METHODS: A cross sectional descriptive study was carried out in Batticaloa district on a sample of 845 elders selected by simple random sampling method. Interviewer administrated questionnaire was used to collect data and descriptive statistical analysis was done. RESULTS: Study population consisted of 78% of elders in young old category of whom 57% were females. Most (93%) attended outpatient departments of government hospitals and 8%, general practitioners as their first contact care for acute illnesses. 48% attended clinics for chronic illnesses at government hospitals. Approximately half of them used public transport to access the health facility. 50% of their health expenditure was managed by their children. Frequency of health seeking behavior for acute illness was higher among females and the difference between the two sexes was statistically significant (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: First contact care for acute and chronic disease conditions for more than 90% of elders in Batticaloa district was government hospitals.Item Health seeking behavior of snakebite victims in Sri Lanka: findings from an island-wide community-based study(Sri Lanka Medical Association, 2014) Kasturiratne, A.; Pathmeswaran, A.; Gunawardena, N.K.; Ediriweera, E.P.D.S.; Wijayawickrama, B.A.; Jayamanne, S.F.; Isbister, G.; Dawson, A.; Lalloo, D.G.; de Silva, H.J.INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Health seeking behaviour of snakebite victims in the community has rarely been described and we investigated this as part of a community-based island-wide study on snakebite in Sri Lanka. METHODS: The national snakebite study was conducted in a!! 25 districts, in SriJ_anka in 2012/2013. 44,136 households were sampled in randomly selected clusters. In these households, any member reported to have experienced a snake bite within the preceding 12 months was considered a case. Data related to the health seeking behavior of snakebite were obtained using an interviewer-administered questionnaire. RESULTS: Among 165,665 individuals surveyed, 695 (60% males; median age 43 years) snakebite victims were identified. 323 (46.5%) had evidence of envenoming. 682 (98.2%) had sought health services after the bite. 381 (54.8%) sought allopathic medicine and 99.7% of them obtained this service from the state health sector, while 43.3% sought alternative medicine. The lowest rates of seeking allopathic medicine were seen in the Kalutara (8.7%) and Kegalie (10.7%) districts while highest rates were seen in the districts Mannar, Mullativu and Kilinochchi (100%). Puttalam (92.9%), Vavuniya (92.3%},) Ampara (89.5%), Jaffna (88.9%) and Anuradhapura (86.0%) also had high rates. 70.1% of the victims with envenoming sought allopathic medicine. Victims who had envenoming were significantly more likely to seek allopathic medicine (OR=3.35; 95% confidence interval 2.44-4.59) than those without envenoming. CONCLUSIONS: A considerable proportion of snake bite victims still seek alternative medicines in Sri Lanka.'A wide variation of practices exists across the country. Victims with envenoming are more likely to seek allopathic medicine.