Perceived Corruption and Quality of Health Services in Mbeya Urban District, Mbeya Region Tanzania

Samwel J Kabote

doi:10.5296/ijssr.v5i1.10519

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of corruption on quality of public health services. Corruption, in Tanzania, is a national concern that upsets public health services. There is a public outcry that corruption is increasing in the public health sector while the government’s effort to combat the phenomenon is unimpressive. This poses worries on the quality of public health services. The current study adopted cross-sectional research design, and a total of 180 respondents were involved in the survey. The Mann Whitney U Test was used to compare differences between perceived quality of health services and respondents’ characteristics. Overall, 87.2% of the respondents perceived low quality of health services, and corruption affected quality of health services to a greater extent. Based on age, employment and wealth status, there was significant difference on reporting perceived quality of health services at 5% and 1% level of significance. In addition, respondents’ sex and employment status showed significant difference in reporting the extent to which corruption affected quality of health services at 5% level of significance. The paper draws out two conclusions: first, the quality of health services was low. Second, corruption exacerbated poor quality of health services. To that effect, interventions to combat corruption in the public health sector are needed so as to improve quality of health services.

Highlights

Corruption, defined as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain in the public sector (Transparency International, 2004), is not a new term in the literature, so is the effort to combat it
This paper examines the effect of corruption on quality of public health services
Since 50.0% of the respondents were married, it is unquestionable that this age group had highest fertility rate and respondents were likely to visit health facilities frequently for their under five children because of their special health needs implying that the sample was relevant for the study

Summary

Introduction

Corruption, defined as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain in the public sector (Transparency International, 2004), is not a new term in the literature, so is the effort to combat it. African countries including Benin, Ghana, Zambia, Kenya, Uganda, and Mali are corrupt than Tanzania (REPOA, 2006). This implies that corruption is one of the widespread concerns in Africa, a situation that needs attention to bring about social development. Corruption is a governance issue, that affects public health and health systems in general, and efforts to bring about development at all levels. Borrowing ideas from Streefland (2008) and Bradshaw (n.d), this paper argues that investing on strategies to combat corruption on the public health sector promotes social development

Methods

Results

Conclusion