Income level and healthcare utilization in Calabar Metropolis of Cross River State, Nigeria

Esther P Archibong,Glory E Bassey,Brown E Isokon,Rosemary Eneji

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04983

Abstract

Throughout the world, socio-economic status differentials of individuals have a lot of influence on privileges and opportunities enjoyed by society members. The different social and economic positions of individuals and income levels oftentimes hinder them from effective use of health care facilities. It is against this background, that the study was designed to investigate income differentials and its influence on utilization of healthcare services among the people of Calabar Metropolis in Cross River State, Nigeria. Relevant body of literature were reviewed and survey design method was adopted. The instruments used were the questionnaire, interview and Focus Group Discussions (FGD). A sample of 360 respondents was selected using a multi-stage sampling procedure for the study. Data was presented using simple percentage calculation while Chi-Square and ANOVA statistical tool was used to test and ascertain the relationship between income level and healthcare services usage at 0.05 level of significance. Findings of the study revealed that level of income and occupational status of individual influence health care service utilization among people in Calabar Metropolis. At the end of the study, several recommendations were made among which were a general improvement of socio-economic status of the people in areas of availability and compulsory education, employment opportunities as well as equitable distribution of income and minimizing cost of health care services for effective and equal utilization.

Highlights

Everywhere in the world, there exist copious debates on the roles that socio-economic status differential of people plays on the degree of health-seeking behavior, and data about the usage of healthcare facilities to help their general health condition
From the finding in the table presented above, the result implies that the independent variable affect the dependent variable
In Nigeria, findings from the study reveals that the primary health care system especially has been poorly utilized and diverse factors are identified as its causes including, income of individuals, occupational status, proximity to clients/patients, services affordability, behaviour and attitude of service providers, availability of equipment and trained service providers (Krieger et al, 1997)

Summary

Introduction

Everywhere in the world, there exist copious debates on the roles that socio-economic status differential of people plays on the degree of health-seeking behavior, and data about the usage of healthcare facilities to help their general health condition. According to Anderson (2016), the choice of utilizing health services involves ability to perceive and recognize symptoms, the degree to which the side effects are seen as hazardous, the measure of resilience for the manifestations, and essential needs that lead to rejection of health services utilization Several factors such as cultural, social, gender, economic and geographic variables predispose people to poor utilization of health services. In the private sector, the health care service utilization is capital intensive and health care service utilization is highly tied to monetary terms, and services are only rendered to those who patronize them

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion