Socio-Cultural Factors In The Use Of Health Care Services In Nsukka Town

ABSTRACT

This study is on the socio-cultural factors in the use of health care services in Nsukka town of

Enugu State. For the study, 543 respondents were sampled across the three (3) autonomous

communities that make up Nsukka town using questionnaire. Also for qualitative data, 24 people

were interviewed of which 12 were health care givers and 12 community leaders. This work is

divided into five chapters. In chapter one, the problems, objective and significance of the study

were highlighted. The researcher also defines some of the concept used in the study given brief

background to the study. Theoretical and empirical literature on the subject matter was reviewed

in chapter two. In chapter three, researcher presented the methodology, which includes sample

size, sampling procedure, instrument for data collection and method of data analysis. In

analyzing the data in chapter four, percentages were used to answer the research questions and

Chi-square was used to test the hypotheses. The result of the study reveals that quite a number of

people (25%) believe that one can only visit the hospital when one is seriously ill or suffering

from a chronic sickness. The poor attitude of people to modern medicine is thus anchored on so

many factors of which on of them is the cultural and belief system of people about illness. In

chapter five, the researcher discussed and summarized other major findings, implication of the

study was stated and recommendations were made based on the findings which include the need

for enlightenment and educative programmes in other to improve and promote health care

services in Nigeria.