The Status of Women's Participation in Community-Based Health Care in Lake Kenyatta Settlement Scheme Lamu District

Abstract

This study "The status of Women's Participation in Community Based Health Care, in Lake Kenyatta Settlement Scheme, Lamu District" involved interviews and intensive informal discussions with 345 women aged 15-49. The study's major objective was to look into the nature actions taken by women in their homes as primary preventive health measures and the factors which influence the actions in question. The major hypothses that for the study was that women's health actions or practices lagged far behind their knowledge, that is, there was a dicrepancy between knowledge, attitudes and practices. The study sample was selected through systematic and simple random sampling. Theories of social change and modernization were used to explain factors that influence people's health seeking behavior and how these relate to community based health care or primary health care. The study found an improvement in some of the primary preventive measures taken by women but knowledge levels were found to be much higher than the practices in all the measures looked into wi tl:l an exception of clinically based prevention like immunization. The relationship between the community based health workers (CBHWs) and the community women was found to be poor. There was a problem of incentives for the community health workers. Women's groups were found to be a good channel for educating members on health issues. The study recommended that ;UL community based health care to be sustained, peoples attitudes must effectively change to allow application of the knowledge gained; the relationship between CBHWs and the women should be improved and when training community members, CBHWs should use a more participatory approach which is learner centred allowing people to understand the link between their behavior and disease patterns. ~~e settlers should be encouraged to form such social groups as women's groups through which they can jointly identify community problems. For CBHC to gain strong community support there is need for a strong Village Health committee (VHC) which should be initiated and supported by the community members themselves.