Gynecological Problems and Barriers to Health Seeking Behaviour among Women Working in Industrial Units of a Selected Panchayat in Thrissur

The study was aimed to identify the gynecological problems and barriers to health seeking behaviour among women working in industrial units. The objectives of this study were to assess gynecological problems among women working in industrial units, assess the barriers to health seeking behavior among women working in industrial units, determine the association between gynecological problems and barriers of health seeking behaviour and to find the association between gynecological problems and selected socio demographic variables. The conceptual frame work of the study was based on Nola.J. Pender’s Health Promotion Model [revised in 2002]. Non-experimental descriptive survey design was used for the study. 250 women working in industrial units of Avannur panchayat were selected using Purposive sampling technique. Semi structured interview schedule was used to collect socio demographic data and checklist to identify gynecological problems and barriers to health seeking behaviour. The collected data was tabulated and analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistics. The result revealed that among industrial working women 21.2 percentage of them had past history of gynecological problem and 80 percent of women had at the time of data collection. In that 60.4 percentage of them had menstrual disorders, 4.4 percentage had problems related to breast, 17.2 percentage had vaginal discharge associated with low back ache, 24 percentage had abnormal vaginal discharge, 18.4 percentage had genitourinary tract infection, 3.6 percentage had stress urinary incontinence,4.8 percentage had features of hyperandrogenism and 16.8 percentage had menopausal problems. Among them 80.8 percentage of women experienced barriers to health seeking behaviour. In that 50.4 percentage had personal, 23.2 percentage had organizational and 16 percentage had social barriers. There is significant association between gynecological problems and barriers to health seeking behaviour.