Health Service Seeking Behaviour of College Students in Rural Part of Murshidabad District of West Bengal (India)

‘Need based Health Care Services’ is the urge of the present century and to design ‘Need based Health Care Services’ for the nation understanding of ‘Health Seeking Behaviour’ (HSB) of population is essential. The policy makers must know the drivers of health seeking behaviour of the population for prevention, treatment, management of disease and promotion of health. At the community level, information regarding service utilization and preferences can be used to improve the appropriateness of the medical and health care services offered. In this context it had been realized that the students are the future of any nation. So, to maintain a healthy community an understanding of HSB of students is of paramount important. Secondly, Indian population mainly lies in rural areas. As the census report of 2011declare, 69% of Indian population are living in rural parts of India. These rural people have distinctive health problem, and they are mainly governed by their traditional beliefs, practices and ecological conditions. Some rural people still believe that a disease is always caused by hostile spirits or by the breach of some taboo. So, the health problems of rural need special attention. Taking these two things into consideration, in this study an attempt has been made to explore the perspective of rural student community towards the causes of various diseases prevalent and the health and HSB among the next generation of rural India. It was evident that rural students’ health service seeking behaviour is a multi‐dimensional construct which are affected by many variables. Healthcare quality affects their satisfaction, which in turn influences positive behaviours such as loyalty. Public health care facilities were preferred by due to low cost of services and HSB varies with the type of illness and income of the individuals.