Cultural Construction of Health and Health Seeking Behavior in Rural Bangladesh

Abstract

Health is one of the elementary needs of human being. People seek and find out multiple options and practices within and beyond the boundary of the society for healthcare services. There are so many socio-cultural, ideological and psychological aspects to understand health and seeking health. This article investigates on the role of culture in health care behavior. As part of the methodological issues, qualitative approach like informal in-depth interview is applied. The major findings of the research are health behavior is found to be a complex phenomenon since it is subject to a number of determinants ranging from psychological, biological, cultural, social to the economic once. As well as different beliefs and practices contribute to the causation of diseases as they provide the framework for perceiving causes and seeking treatment. Traditional health behavior is found to exist alongside modern one and an important impact of co-existence.