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.
