The long walk to universal health coverage: patterns of inequities in the use of primary healthcare services in Enugu, Southeast Nigeria

Ijeoma Okoronkwo · Obinna Emmanuel Onwujekwe · Francis O Ani

34 citations0/0 files storedBMC Health Services Research

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Healthcare Systems and Reforms Healthcare Quality and Satisfaction Public Health and Social Inequalities

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Knowledge and understanding of health service usage are necessary for health resource allocation, planning and monitoring the achievement of universal coverage (UHC). There is limited information on patterns of utilization among adult users of primary health care (PHC) services. Lack of understanding of current and past utilization patterns of health services often hinders the improvement of future Primary Health Care (PHC) delivery in the remote areas of developing countries. This paper presents new knowledge on the patterns of utilization of PHC services among adults in Enugu metropolis southeast Nigeria. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 15 PHC facilities of Enugu North Local Government Area (LGA) from June to July 2012. A total of 360 consenting adult users aged 18 years and above were consecutively recruited as they attended the health facilities. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents. A modified Likert scale questionnaire was used to analyze data on patterns of utilization. Utilization of PHC services was compared by gender, socio-economic status (SES) and level of education. RESULTS: Out of the 360 respondents, (46.9%) utilized PHC services regularly. The components of PHC mostly utilized by respondents were immunization with a mean score of 3.05, treatment of common ailments (2.99) and maternal and child health (2.64). The least poor SES group utilized PHC services the most while the very poor and poor SES groups used PHC services least. There were statistically significant relationships between utilization of PHC services and gender (p = 0.0084), level of education (p=0.0366) and income (p =0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: Most adult users in this study did not utilize the health facilities regularly and there were gender, educational and SES inequities in the use of PHC services. These inequities will negate the achievement of universal health coverage with PHC services and should be remedied using appropriate interventions.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 34 citations exist upstream.

References

2001Estimating wealth effects without expenditure data—or tears: An application to educational enrollments in states of India 2001Estimating Wealth Effects without Expenditure Data-or Tears: An Application to Educational Enrollments in States of India 2012Measuring socio-economic position for epidemiological studies in low- and middle-income countries: a methods of measurement in epidemiology paper 2002Gender Dimensions of User Fees: Implications for Women’s Utilization of Health Care 2006Assessment of health care needs and utilization in a mixed public-private system: the case of the Athens area 2005Inequities in healthcare seeking in the treatment of communicable endemic diseases in Southeast Nigeria 2003Decentralized delivery of primary health services in Nigeria: survey evidence from the states of Lagos and Kogi 2006The determinants of primary health care utilization: a comparison of three rural clinics in Southern Honduras

Cited by

2022Determinants of primary healthcare services utilisation in an under-resourced rural community in Enugu State, Nigeria: a cross-sectional study 2017Investigating socio-economic inequity in access to and expenditures on routine immunization services in Anambra state

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.