Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Health Care Behavior Study in Bangladesh-Socioeconomic information

Socioeconomic and demographic information:

1. About 71.8% respondents were interviewed from Rangpur District and the rest 28.2% were from Kurigram District.

71.8% respondents were interviewed from Rangpur District and the rest 28.2% were from Kurigram District. Rangpur district was sampled as a typical Rajshahi Division district for the mentioned research study. It was shown in the previous chapter regarding methodology and the sampling that sampled rural respondents of Rangpur District would fulfill the requirements for typical Rajshahi Division samples. But Bangladesh has about 2% other ethnic minority population apart from the majority Bengalis in totality and Rajshahi Division possesses a little of that ethnic population or their successors. In the social-anthropological points of view, they have some different traditional beliefs, customs and manners and behaviors. So, to document those and to minimize these "ethnic gaps", the researcher took about 28.2% respondents from Kurigram District where there live some descendants from once Pundro-Khastrio/Rajbanshi/Kuch and Bairagi/Nath-hath-yogi/Baisnab and the Khyan tribes (detailed anthropological discussion was done in the previous chapters).

2. Rangpur Sadar Upazilla was accounted for the highest number of interviews (71.8%), Rajar Hat and Ulipur Upazilla, both within Kurigram District, were accounted for about 14.4% and 13.8% interviews respectively. For the same reason mentioned above, Sadar Upazilla of Rangpur District accounted for highest number of respondents and two Upzillas of Kurigram District were accounted for the rest of the sampled respondents.

3. Uttam Union of Rangpur Sadar Upazilla was accounted for the highest number of interviews (71.8%), Chhinai Union of Rajar Hat Upazilla and Pandul Union of Ulipur Upazilla, both within Kurigram District, were accounted for about 14.4% and 13.8% interviews respectively. Sampled Unions were accounted for mentioned sampling.

% Respondents by Unions

4. Among the respondents for in-depth interview, 37.4% live in Goalu, 34.5% is from the village of Bahadur Singha, whereas, Purbo-Debottor and Joykumar both accounted for 7.2% and Apuar Khata and Paschim Apuar Khata accounted for 6.9% respondents. Villages were purposively chosen purposively in sampling (details in the sampling technique chapter).

5. About 6.6 % respondents were from East Para of the Goalu village, where as other Paras of Goalu namely West Para, Khayan and "other" Paras accounted for 10.1%, 16.1% and 14.7% respondents respectively. Paras in the village Bahadur Singha accounted for 13.5% of the interviewed respondents. Mollah Para, Kamar Para and Char Joy kumar accounted for 10.9%, 6.9% and 7.2% respectively.Random/systematic random sampling techniques have been used (details in the sampling technique chapter).


6. About 51.7% of the interviewed respondents were female. Attempt was made to take females as at least half of respondents to achieve the gender variations in response.

7. Mean age of the respondents interviewed was 44.4 years. The highest aged respondent interviewed was/were of 62 years and lowest of 30 years. The ages of the respondents were between 30-62 years. These are the ages in which a respondent can be mentioned as of normal age of knowledge and capable of understand and disseminate any information normally.

8. Among the interviewed primary respondents 8.9% was Pundro-Khastrio/Rajbanshi/Kuch1. About 74.4% and 4.3% was Muslim and general mainstream Hindu, Bairagi/Nath-hath-yogi/Baisnab2 and the Khyan were accounted for 5.2% and 7.2% respectively. It is interesting that although the mentioned population claim that they belong to the religion of Hindu, the mainstream of the Hindus have been continually refuse to admit the claim. In the observation at the field, it was seen that most of these unconventional Hindus are the descendants of the ethnic aboriginals, mostly the mongoloids anthropologically i.e. mostly possibly from Garos. Moe or less, it is the same scenario in everywhere of the rural population of Bangladesh, where this scheduled Hindus constitute a considerable portion of the total Hindu population of the area.

(1= they are not real Khastrio who are rare in East Bengal or Bangladesh. Real Khastrio are the martial race of the ancient Hindu religion and use to be the rulers, fighters etc. and the Rajputs and other north Indian castes are known as Khastrio. Population in the northern Bengal identifies them as Khastrio for some mythical reasons that were introduced by their kings like king Bishwashor of Kuch kingdom. According to the myth, 3rd Pandob Arjun came to this land and married the indigenous princess Chitrangada. Arjun was one of the top most Khastrio of the era, hence the Kuch king defined themselves as the Khastrio. Typical Khastrio likely to have pure Aryan builds, whereas these Pundro- Khastrio are of Mongolian origin without doubt in their body and skull builds and in appearances!

2= Other than the Muslims, all counted as the Hindus)

9. Among the interviewed primary respondents, 44.5% were illiterate and 55.5% respondents were claimed to be literate. Again about 32.2% respondents interviewed were literate to the extent of primary level. Only 5.7% respondents interviewed were educated up to the S.S.C. level and above. Reflecting the situation in rural Bangladesh as a whole in the context of education. Only 5.7% SSC level education leaves the rural Rajshahi areas extremely vulnerable to superstitions and obstructs positive changes in the contexts of any modern and scientific knowledge and practice among the population.

10. Among the interviewed primary respondents, about 34.5% accounted for number of family members as 4, whereas about 17.2% have 8 member families. About 24.2% have family members more than 6. Only about 3.5% have families with 3 members. Expresses the excessive population in the rural areas and the family size in the households which is important to any design for health delivery system in the study population.

9. Among the interviewed primary respondents, about 29.3% belonged to the agriculture as their occupation, whereas about 46.6% were the housewives. About 8.3% were different professional groups. As we saw in previous table analyses, more than half of the respondents (51.7%) were females and here it is seen that about 46.6% of the total respondents are housewives. So, some of the females respondents had been doing something other than their roles as housewives.

10. Among the interviewed primary respondents, about 65.5% respondents’ economical condition was assumed as "not good". Only about 10.3% were identified having "good" or well off economic conditions. (Dresses, household utensils and other assets were indicators for the assumption). As the interview process was totally participatory and community based, interviewers were deployed from the community and they applied their indigenous techniques as they usually use to describe the economical conditions in their community and no highly precision scaling system was used due to the nature of the interviews. They could do it most preciously as the researcher thought. Economic conditions were predicted by the interviewer on certain general findings/criteria. How they pass their lives, what they eat, what they wear and what they do for income earning. Also idea was taken by observing their household for built and other criteria. This is the general understanding of the economic condition expressed in their livelihoods, not a very technical analysis and in most cases, it fulfills the objective to understand population’s situation. No strict economic measurement scale from any institute has been used, rather assumptions have been made with the indigenous idea found in the locality among the population to tell some one having "good", "average" or "not good" economic condition and those are dependent on the livelihood indicators of the assessed families or households (this is common practice in the rural Bangladesh to describe anyone’s economic condition)

11. Among the interviewed primary respondents, about 58.6% have the income source related to agriculture. About 20.7% have the income source related to the business i.e. small business like grocery shop or village market shops, tea-stalls etc. Different types of low-graded services contributed for about 13.8% of the income source, whereas different professional activities constituted the rest 6.9% of the responses regarding the income sources. Showing a predominantly agrigarian society, but a large proportion of the ethnic originated population are dependent on the other professions like craftsmanship in different trades. The later is partly due to their family heritage and partly due to their lack of cultivable lands, most of which have been known to be grabbed by the majority Muslim and mainstream Hindu populations since hundreds of years!

12. As per the statement of the interviewed primary respondents, their mean family income earning per month had been seen as about Tk. 2345 of which Tk. 4000.00 is the highest and Tk. 800/month is the lowest income earning per family. This expresses the income earning per household as stated by the respondents.

13.Among the interviewed primary respondents, about 58.6% are income earning, whereas about 41.4% are not income earning members of their families (mostly the housewives and the old/disabled persons). The finding shows that some female respondents were also accounted for the income earning (51.7% respondents are females)

14. Among the interviewed primary respondents income earners, the mean income earring were about Tk. 1306, whereas, Tk. 3000.00 and Tk. 500.00 were the maximum and the minimum income earrings respectively. About 82.4% respondents stated their monthly income earning as Taka 1500 or less.

15. Among the interviewed respondents’ families, about 86.2% lived in the houses owned by them; however about 13.8% were sheltered in the houses of their relatives or known families. Absence of rented house as any interviewed family’s living place reflects the normal rural phenomenon of the area.

In the rural Bangladesh, rented houses are rarely seen except the areas adjacent to the Thana or Distrcit headquarters. Majority of the respondents have their own homes, others are sheltered in their relatives’ households.

17. Among the interviewed respondents’ families, about 13.8% live in houses with good road communications and 41.4% with average road communication. About 44.9% has the household with bad road communications. Here only 13.8% respondents, who live at the side of the highways and other subways, stated they had good road communications. Other stated it as "average" or "bad". Road communication has a great role in the health seeking behavior as people have to go to the service centers through the roads. However, not only the road, also the transportations are required, and in most good roads, some types of transportations are present.

18. Among the interviewed respondents’ families, about 55.7% have no tube wells or electricity in their houses, whereas, 39.4% and 20.4% have tube wells and electricity respectively in their houses. It is of value to the interested quarters as it is reflecting the WatSan (water and sanitation) situation in the study population which cries significance for disease prevalence and health care behaviors of the population in general.

Household amenities

Pct of Pct of

Count Responses Cases

Tube well 137 34.1 39.4

Electricity 71 17.7 20.4

No tube well or electricity 194 48.3 55.7

------- ----- -----

Total responses 402 100.0 115.5

19. Among the interviewed respondents’ families, 74.7% and 69% owned watches and radios respectively, whereas, 52.9% owned bicycles (proportion is seen pretty higher, possibly for transport of the adult males to Rangpur or other places wherever necessary in the mud road). About 4.6% had televisions (mostly in their grocery shops), whereas, 12.4% had nothing such in there houses. About 10.3% have rickshaw or bull-carts, mostly for giving rent for income earning. Important for understanding of message dissemination processes through media, bicycles are pretty higher in number for communications.

Ownership of household commodity

Count Responses Cases

Radio 240 30.6 69.0

Television 16 2.0 4.6

Watch 260 33.1 74.7

Bi-cycle 184 23.4 52.9

Rickshaw/Bull cart 36 4.6 10.3

Boat 6 .8 1.7

Nothing 43 5.5 12.4

------- ----- -----

Total responses 785 100.0 225.6

20. Of the interviewed respondent females, 36.1% husbands were illiterate, whereas, 40.7% were literate to the extent of primary levels. Only 2.8% husbands were educated up to degree (Bachelor) level. This is a very important account as predominantly the males are the decision makers, so their educational levels can contribute/influence the health care behavior of the family members to a great extent. About 76.8% of the female respondents’ husbands are either illiterate or of primary level educated, thus limits the scopes for dissemination of modern knowledge through printed media and recalls importance of audio-visual approaches.

21. Of the interviewed respondent males, 54.8% wives were illiterate, whereas, 32.1% were literate to the extent of primary levels. Only 3.6% wives were educated up to S.S.C. level. About 1.8% has no wives then, either died or separated. About 86.9% of the wives of the respondent males are either illiterate or primary levelers. It is also an important indicator in the health care behavior as the women are the household caretakers for the diseased persons in the family.

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