*Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Mata Sundri Girls College, VPO Dhadhe, Dist. Bathinda (Punjab)
**Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Punjabi University, T.P.D. Malwa College, Rampura, Phul-Mehraj, Dist. Bathinda (Punjab)
Online published on 30 September, 2013.
The present paper has been taken into consideration to study the differences in urban and rural areas regarding general awareness and perception of diseases/treatment, perception of voluntary health check-ups and households’ approach to severity of illnesses in Punjab. The study also describes the role of layman in decisive and shaping the treatment process of the households. A sample of 180 rural and 120 urban households spread across eighteen villages and nine cities/towns, located in three districts of Punjab respectively, namely, Jalandhar, Bathinda and Fatehgarh Sahib has been selected for the study. The study clearly found the variations in rural and urban areas regarding various aspects such as reasons for not seeking treatment, stage of illness of seeking treatment, attitude towards general cause of diseases, level of knowledge in identifying various chronic and communicable diseases, need of voluntary health check-up and role of laypeople in influencing the treatment process etc. The knowledge of health services and the level of perception of the need for health services are found low for rural households in comparison to urban households.
Health services, perception of health care needs and treatment, health seeking behaviour, rural-urban differences, voluntary health check-up
