Abstract
The study investigated the utilization of healthcare facilities among farming households in Yewa South Local Government Area of Ogun State. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 120 farming households and primary data were collected through the use of questionnaire. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multivariate probit regression model. The results indicated that the mean age of the respondents was 41 years with an average household size of five people. About 31%of the respondents had no formal education and farming is the main occupation of respondents. Most (45.8%) of the respondents travelled a distance of 5 km or less before accessing health care facilities. Primary health care was the major health care service utilized by respondents in the study area. Results further revealed that age, education, household size, income, distance to healthcare facilities, severity of ailments and belief were the major socioeconomic factors determining demand for healthcare facilities in the study area. The findings call for government at all tiers to establish more healthcare facilities closer to the residence of the rural areas to increase the farming households’ accessibility to these facilities. Keywords: healthcare, households, multivariate probit, trado-medicals
Highlights
Sound health is a basic requirement for living a productive life
According to Gallup and Sachs (1990) agriculture supports health by providing food and nutrition for the world’s people by generating income that can be spent on healthcare, yet agricultural production and food consumption can increase the risks of water related diseases and food-borne diseases- as well as health hazards linked with specific agricultural system and practices, such as infectious animal diseases, pesticide poisoning and aflatoxicosis
This implies that the farming households in the study area were male dominated
Summary
Sound health is a basic requirement for living a productive life. According to World Health Organization (2000), “health is a state of complete physical, social and mental well-being and not merely an absence of a disease or infirmity”. Poor health affects agricultural production as the health status of the farmers affects their physical ability to work, efficient utilization of resources as well as ability to adopt innovations and impart negatively on the welfare of their entire household (Asenso-Okyere et al, 2011). Poor health will result to a loss of days worked or in reduced efficiency, which may likely reduce output especially when family labour is inadequate as a coping strategy (Antle and Pingali, 1994). Nigeria still has one of the worst health indices in the world and sadly ranked fourth country with the worst maternal mortality rate ahead of Sierra Leone, Central African Republic and Chad (WHO, 2016).According to the World Bank estimates, Nigeria’s Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) is still as high as 814 per 100,000 live births in 2015 (CIA World Factbook, 2018). The use of healthcare facility in the rural areas of Nigeria is limited or restricted by inadequate healthcare facilities, insufficient staff, equipment or medical training; other limitations include far distance location of facility, method of payment, income, household size, years of formal education, mainoccupation of households and more importantly limited access to healthcare services
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