Theoretical Underpinnings
In rural remote settings, individual, household and community-level factors including socio-economic status, education, age, marital status, occupation, distance to health facility and how healthcare is delivered influence health-seeking behaviour . These factors also influence the ability to navigate the health systems as well as adherence to modern healthcare practices. This study hypothesized that the implementation of GEHIP has the potential to improve health equity in rural communities by attenuating the negative effect of adverse socio-economic status and other characteristics. The hypothesis here is that community-based primary healthcare brings services to the doorsteps of rural community members thus reducing the cost and time in accessing health care. In addition, through community engagement and health promotion activities, community-based programs can bridge socio-cultural barriers to healthcare seeking and practices in line with the Health Belief Model (HBM) which posit that good health behavior can be achieved through interventions that target perceived barriers to action, threats, risks susceptibility, risk severity, highlighting the benefits of action, as well as self-efficacy. To this end, GEHIP’s community-based primary healthcare program can mitigate the impact of social determinants of health between the poor and the rich, with potential equity improvement in both access to healthcare and health outcomes for mothers and children.