en بهداشت عمومی Public Health پژوهشي Research <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:12px;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><strong>Background</strong>: World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that seeking prompt and appropriate healthcare could reduce child deaths by nearly 30%.&nbsp; In this background, the present study was conducted to 1. assess the health services utilization for diarrhoea and ARI (acute respiratory infections) among under-5 children in South Bengaluru, 2. determine the factors influencing mothers for utilization of health services.<br> <strong>Methods</strong>: Authors conducted a cross-sectional study in 10 randomly selected wards of South Bengaluru from July, 2019 to January, 2020 using multistage sampling. 432 mothers with under-5 children were interviewed regarding morbidities of their children in the previous one month and the health services they utilised, using a semi-structured questionnaire derived from multiple indicator cluster survey (MICS) by UNICEF. Data were analysed using SPSS 21.0 for descriptive statistics and logistic regression.<br> <strong>Results</strong>: 95 of the participants had illnesses in the past one month; but, only 41 had used health facilities for treatment, mainly in the private sector (68.3%). The reasons for non-utilization of healthcare services were negligence (36.9%), long waiting time at the center (22.4%), financial constraints (20.4%) and mothers&rsquo; jobs (9.6%). The most significant factors influencing the health services utilisation were: literacy status of the mother (predisposing factor), low socio-economic status/ BPL (below poverty line) families (enabling factor), and severity of symptoms (need factor).<br> <strong>Conclusion</strong>: Utilisation of healthcare services for under-five morbidities in the studied population was inadequate. The influencing factors have to be addressed on a priority basis to fulfil the goal of universal health coverage.</span></span></p> Childhood, Factors, Healthcare, Morbidities, Usage 52 59 http://jhr.ssu.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1803-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Ravish Haradanhalli drravishhs@gmail.com 0000-0002-0583-0826 No MD, Kempegowda Institute of Medical Sciences, Karnataka, India Nitu Kumari nitu_beauty18@rediffmail.com 0000-0002-6348-997X Yes MD, University College of Medical Sciences, Delhi, India Ramya Mandya dr.ramya01@gmail.com 0000-0002-0324-4241 No MD, Sri Siddhartha Institute of Medical Sciences & Research Centre, Karnataka, India Jithin Surendran jithintittu@gmail.com 0000-0002-6857-8234 No MD, Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore, India