Abstract

The objective of health services planning is to provide the best access to health services within the constraints of availability of resources. The accomplishment of this objective requires identification of those factors most influential in determining a persons utilization of, or demand for health services. The objectives of this study are to measure utilization of health services expressed in demand for health center services, especially to determine the demand coefficients elasticity as well as the quality in connection with private services. A household survey was conducted in this study with the household as unit .of analysis. The sample was 346 households, were taken from urban and rural areas. A multistage cluster random sample was executed. Demand variable is represented by the frequency of visits to, health centers six months before investigation. Independent variables in this study are income, expen­diture, education, distance, time and charge/cost of health services. The multiple linier regression was conducted in this study. Regression technique also enabled us to estimate the elasticity of demand coefficient by transforming the data into logarithm scale. The results of this study show that the regression equation explains 41,36% of variations in the demand for health centers in urban areas and 16,82% in rural areas. The coefficient of elasticity explained 32,33% in urban and 4,59% in rural condition. The equation in the urban areas show that higher education levels and higher charges would lower the demand for health centers (E = —0,1489 and —0,2108). In the rural areas, longer distances would lower health center demands (E = —0,1343). In urban areas, the quality connection of health center with private services is substitutables, but for rural areas this is very small. Insurance will influence the demand for health services. To increase total amount of health services demanded by families, the availability of health insurance is thus urgently needed.

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