FACTORS AFFECTING HEALTH CARE UTILIZATION: EVIDENCE FROM THE 2013 NIGERIAN DEMOGRAPHIC AND HEALTH SURVEY.

Abstract

This paper seeks to analyze the factors that determine the factors that affect the choices of the types of health care facility being utilized by individuals based by examining the differences in socio-economic and demographic characteristics of the respondent. The study analyzed secondary data from the 2013 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) conducted in Nigeria from February to June 2013. A total number of 56, 307 individuals were involved out of which males were 17,359 in number and females were 38,948. The ages of the respondents being analyzed in this study is between 15-49 years. Utilization was categorized according to choice of facility, choice of professional and disease state sought for treatment. The different choices of facility for health care utilization for the conditions of antenatal/post-natal care, family planning, fever, diarrhoea and STI were examined. Logit and multinomial logit regressions were used to analyze the various categories of the dependent variables. The result of the study showed that health insurance does not statistically affect the utilization of health care service. Wealth Index, education, location of residence, income and means of mobility were statistically significant and positively associated with the utilization of various categories of health care services, both in terms of choice of facility and choice of professional. Formal private health facilities were found to be more preferred in seeking for health care than the formal public facilities.