Factors Associated with the Low Facilities Visit: The Real Expectations of Patients in Cameroonian’s Context

Abstract

The health district of Mfou is one of the 29 health districts for the Central region of Cameroon. In 2014, the attendance rate of its facilities was 41%, lower than the 80% norm of the Togolese Ministry of Health in 2013. Questioning the factors associated with this low attendance necessitated the identification of links and associations between it and social demographic factors, health satisfaction, and the perception of facilities by the population. To identify factors associated with low attendance in the Mfou Health District. This is a quanti-qualitative, descriptive cross-sectional study that took place from June 15 to September 22, 2018, in the 32 health facilities in the Mfou Health District. The data collection was based on medical consultation records for 84231 enrolled persons, 372 questionnaires administered to patients in health facilities, and 5 patients who underwent interviews. The data analysis was carried out using CSPro 6.2, Survey CTO Collect v2.41, and SPSS 21 software and the manual operation of the audio content of the interviews. This study shows that the attendance rate of health facilities in the health district of Mfou remains low: 39% in 2015 and 42% in 2017. The factors associated with low attendance at health facilities are the lack of health insurance, the rural environment, the poor quality of reception, the low dynamism of community health workers, the high cost of care and services, the need to have a family relative or an acquaintance working in the Hospital and going to the Hospital only when the illness seems serious with a (P˂ 5%). The low attendance of health facilities in the Mfou health district remains a major public health concern. This is associated with many factors for which the involvement of communities is necessary and their inclusion in the development of health policies. Keywords: Factors Associated with Low Attendance of Health Facilities, Health Facilities, and Health Districts.