Socio-Economic and Demographic Determinants of Health Insurance Consumption

Abstract

This study analyzed factors affecting health insurance consumption in Akwa Ibom State. Primary data were collected from a total of 60 national Health Insurance Scheme patrons and non patron. Data were collected on consumer’s education, income, age; religion, sex, marital status, access to health insurance information, occupation and family size. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and regression analysis. The socio-economic and demographic profile of the people revealed that most of the sampled NHIS patrons and non patrons were literate, engaged in meaningful employment, mostly married with average income, and were still in their active ages, and demonstrated meaningful exposure to insurance health information, which enable them to be or not to be active participants of the scheme. From the regression analysis, it was evident that all the variables except religion influenced insurance consumption positively whereas religion affects health insurance consumption negatively. Based on this, we recommended among other things, a re-alignment of health insurance marketing strategies with consumers socio-economic and demographic characteristics, as a measure to boost patronage. Key words: Socio-Economic; Demographic; Health insurance; Consumption