The role of socio-economic status in the utilization of health care services in rural areas in Bauchi State

Abstract

Several socio-economic factors have been indicated as factors that are responsible for the utilization and outcome of health care services. The study aims at investigating the socio-economic factors that affect the utilization of health care services by inhabitants of rural areas of Bauchi State. The study engaged the survey design. A total of 3447 respondents were sampled for the study. The procedure used is the simple random sampling procedure. A well-structured questionnaire was used to elicit data for the study. 42% of the respondents were males while 58% of them females. The result obtained shows that education (47.4%); employment status (52.5%) and house ownership status (67.7%) are the socio-economic factors that significantly necessitated the utilization of health care services by rural dwellers of Bauchi State. Education status, Occupation, Income, education, healthcare, type of house, age, marital status and insurance, do not have influence on the utilization of health care services (P> 0.05). In conclusion, the utilization of health care centers in Bauchi State is very low among the rural dwellers. The non-educated or half literate, the unemployed and those who live in rented homes should be encouraged to utilize health facilities the more. Also, the influence of other socio-economic factors on health facilities utilization should be studied.