Dynamics of Healer Choice in a Medically Pluralistic Society: A Study on Urban Youths in Dhaka City

Abstract

The choice of a healer in a medically pluralistic society is a complex process. This paper examines the usefulness of Health Belief Model (HBM) and other confounding factors in determining healer choice of the urban youths and tested four components of HBM in relation to socio-demographic characteristics and preferred treatment mode of the respondents. The study revealed that sociodemographic characteristics - sex, years of schooling, household income, marital status, occupation, listening to radio, watching television have been found significantly associated with preferred treatment choice of the respondents. Perceived Severity is moderately associated with the preferred treatment mode (p<0.05). In addition, respondents with higher levels of education and income are more likely to have higher levels of Perceived Susceptibility, Severity and Benefits. The study findings indicate that youths with greater economic vulnerability tend to choose traditional healer for getting treatment.