title: Exploring the role of social interactions and supports in overcoming accessibility barriers while undertaking health tours in India.
abstract: This article explores the phenomenon of companionship as an adaptation strategy to counter the existing barriers to health care access in developing nations. Companionship is argued to be an outcome of "inter" and "intra" household collaboration to offer diverse supports in addition to altruism. The analysis of the household survey conducted in West Bengal, India, exhibited different patterns of health care tours and the associated dependencies. In addition to support in terms of mobility while traveling and companionship while waiting for the opportunity, support in terms of refuge is also found to be essential, especially for the poor while they undertake regional tours. Causal models focusing on aggregated general health tours and specific regional tours were estimated separately to comprehend the implicit social interactions and their effects on the patient as well as the companions. The research demonstrated that accessibility barriers affect not only the ill, but also those associated with them and at times adversely. Segregation of regional tours illustrated the gaps, which instigated such tours and also might aid in health infrastructure planning as a whole.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Urban Engineering , The University of Tokyo , Tokyo , Japan.
authors.forename: Arnab
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jana
authors.forename: Noboru
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Harata
authors.forename: Takami
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kiyoshi
authors.forename: Nobuaki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ohmori
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D040362:Geographic Information Systems; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006268:Health Facilities / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000592:standards*; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D054625:Healthcare Disparities; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology; D012111:Residence Characteristics / Q000145:classification; D012380:Role; D012424:Rural Population; D012944:Social Support; D014195:Travel / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014505:Urban Population
keywords: Outpatient health-seeking tours; accessibility barriers; companionship; dependency; social interaction