Assessment of Knowledge and Rate of Service Uptake of Community Based Health Insurance among Traders in Akpan Andem Market, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

Abstract

Community Based Health Insurance (CBHI) is a form of micro health insurance, which is a health insurance targeting low-income people. The specific feature of CBHI is the community involvement in driving its setup and in its management. Traditional CBHI models are small, voluntary, and often include the pooling of health risks and funds within a community. In Nigeria, many CBHI schemes have had limited success, suffering from low membership levels, and having issues such as regressive financing, poor or lack of involvement amongst scheme members amongst others. The study assessed the level of CBHI knowledge and rate of service uptake of CBHI among the traders. 300 Questionnaires were administered to the traders by face-to-face interview which gave the respondents the opportunity to respond to both the structured and open-ended questions. Inferential statistical tests were used to test the various research hypothesis that arose from the research questions in the study. Various statistical tests such as Chi-square, comparison of column proportions, correlational tests, and multiple regression were used. The result shows a mean knowledge score of 33.79 ± 3.22 with their scores ranging from 25 – 42. 2%. There was no significant relationship between knowledge level and service uptake (p = 0.351). Findings from this study noted that although awareness is poor, a good quota of the participants (79%) still have overall good knowledge of CBHI schemes. Hence, it will be beneficial to leverage on this concretize more efforts towards encouraging people to enrol with the CBHI schemes. Keywords: Community Based Health Insurance, Community Involvement, Voluntary, Health Risk, Regressive Financing, Inferential Statistics, Knowledge Level, Service Uptake.