Gender differences in health seeking behaviour and empowerment needs in Mongolia

Abstract

Background: Over the fast decides, after transition from a socialist system to a market economy, Mongolia has been quite impressive in social and economic development. But these improvements have not been meaningful impacts on health services, poverty reduction and environmental and sustainable development. During this transition period many families were plunged into poverty, social services were reduced and women were losing their equal opportunities. In order to solve the problems faced to community, it needs to promote empowerment and advancement for both men and women. Although basic human indicators are almost equal for Mongolian men and women, there are very few studies have examined in community empowerment and gender differences in Mongolia. Addressing and reducing the gender and socioeconomic disparities in the health of population is very important and the aim of this study was to investigate gender differences in health seeking pathways among the communities in Ulaanbaatar city, Mongolia. Methods: Five hundred randomly selected adult respondents were surveyed through paper based questionnaires. Each respondent represents one household and the survey was carried out urban and peri-urban areas in Ulaanbaatar city, Mongolia. Results: However, the health statuses of women were found to be lower than men, males are less likely to seek health care than females. The results show that women were more likely to have periodical exams than men. Also the most respondents did not participate in health enhancing activities. Conclusions: Even, there was some significant gender differences in health seeking behaviour, there were no gender barriers in health seeking behaviour in Mongolian society. In other hand the process of empowering community need to be more developed and surveyed at all level in Mongolia and there is much need to continue this kind of studies.