Healthcare-seeking experiences of older citizens in Bangladesh: A qualitative study

Abdur Razzaque Sarker; Irfat Zabeen; Moriam Khanam; Ruckshana Akter; Nausad Ali

doi:10.1371/journal.pgph.0001185

Healthcare-seeking experiences of older citizens in Bangladesh: A qualitative study

PLOS Glob Public Health. 2023 Feb 8;3(2):e0001185. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0001185. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Abdur Razzaque Sarker^{1

2}, Irfat Zabeen¹, Moriam Khanam³, Ruckshana Akter⁴, Nausad Ali¹

Affiliations

¹ Population Studies Division, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), Dhaka, Bangladesh.
² Institute of Applied Health Research, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom.
³ Institute of Health Economics, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
⁴ Ministry of Education, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Abstract

Despite improvements in many health indicators in the last few decades, providing access to affordable and quality healthcare for older citizen remains a considerable challenge in Bangladesh. This study aimed to understand individuals 'experiences regarding their healthcare-seeking, treatment cost, accessibility and coping mechanisms for the promotion of appropriate strategies to enhance the quality of life of the older citizens of Bangladesh.A qualitative descriptive approach was used in this study. A total of 27 In-Depth Interviews (IDIs) were conducted in a district in Bangladesh with older people between January and February 2020, where gender distribution was equal. Face-to-face interviews were conducted by trained and experienced interviewers regarding healthcare-seeking and accessibility, affordability, and healthcare coping strategy. Thematic analysis was conducted to analyse the data. It was found that the health condition of the older population is not satisfactory. Most of them had been suffering from several diseases such as benign tumor, chronic kidney disease, body aches, gastric ulcers for a longer period of time. The majority of the participants were suffering from multiple non-communicable diseases while diabetes and hypertension were the foremost of all diseases. This study provides insight into the challenges of managing healthcare services for older citizens in Bangladesh. Healthcare facilities were available, but high out-of-pocket payments, lack of caregivers, and time distance created a barrier to the service provision. The findings indicated that geriatric care policymakers and service providers should prioritize the older-friendly health infrastructures with affordable cost of treatment for the betterment of the health status of older citizens in Bangladesh.

Copyright: © 2023 Sarker et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Grants and funding

This study was funded by the BIDS Research Endowment Funding the form of a grant (PSD/01/2019.20/03) awarded to ARS. No additional external funding was received for this study. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.