FACTORS INFLUENCING UTILIZATION OF HEALTH CARE SERVICES IN DANKU COMMUNITY, WA - UWRC

ABSTRACT

Background: Several factors influence health care utilization. Albeit a lot of the factors are comparable across geographies, their interrelation and impacts on peoples’ actions is often peculiar to a population in the context of the setting they live in. The focus of this study was to assess factors influencing healthcare services utilization in Danku community in Wa Municipality, Upper West Region, Ghana. Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the factors influencing health service utilization of healthcare services in Danku community in the Wa Municipality of the Upper West Region of Ghana. Specifically, it sought to determine different forms of health care services that households used when ill and assess the proportion of households that used formal health care services when ill. It also determined households’ socioeconomic status and its influence on utilization and explored cultural and religious factors that influenced utilization. Methods: A mixed method approach was applied to collect data. A descriptive cross-sectional study with simple random sampling technique was used for the quantitative study. The study population was adults living in the Danku Community. A sample size of 169 was used. A structured questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data. Data was processed using Microsoft excel and exported to STATA version 15 for analysis. Semi-structured interview guide was used for the qualitative study. Compilation sheet was used to organize and develop themes from the data. The qualitative study involved the use of Key Informant Interviews with heads of households. Results: Out of 169 respondents 90(70.3%) fell ill in the last one month and 70(77.8%) utilized a health facility. The mean age was 41.39 years. Factors found to be associated with health utilization was only Source of seeking care (AOR = 0.02, 95% CI 0.00 – 2.26, P = 0.003). The study found that women do not have the autonomy to seek healthcare when ill because they have to ask for permission from their household heads and some respondents still believed that not all sicknesses are cured by orthodox medicine. Conclusion: The findings of this study demonstrates adequate utilization of health services in Danku community. Level of utilization of 77.8% was higher than as observed in literature (50%). Some similarities and variations in associated factors were established. There is the need to invest in improving the NHIS. A lot of patients (13.3%) prefer at home treatment and 17.8% still prefer OTC medications which affects health outcomes. Irregular openings, absenteeism and lack of medications at clinic is affecting utilization.