Abstract
HEALTH-CARE ACCESS AND UTILIZATION AMONG HOUSEHOLDS IN KATSINA STATE, NORTH-WESTERN, NIGERIA
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Achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is one of the targets set by nations of the world when adopting the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015. The law establishing Katsina State Contributory Healthcare Management Agency (KTSCHMA) was signed on 27th December 2018 as Law No. 10 of 2018. The agency carried out the Household Baseline Assessment Survey for implementation of the Scheme across the state. This aimed at determining the households spending on health, health seeking behavior, access to healthcare services among the residents of the state. It is a descriptive cross-sectional design study carried out across the state in January 2020, 416 household were surveyed using the multistage sampling techniques. The result shows that majority (88.5%) of households has male heads with (56.1%) have no formal education. Most (46.6%) household heads are self-employed and only 9.6% of household heads are working in the public sectors. The average household is made up of 6 members. Findings also showed that; about 99.3% of residents pay out of pocket for health care and only about 0.5% has some form of health security (insurance or retainership). Majority (95.2%) of residents visits the healthcare facilities when ill, only about 63.9% visit government health facilities as their first point of call for treatment, with less (15.2%), visiting chemists and pharmacists usually without a prescription from a doctor. Quality of care (51.5%) and affordability (23.2%) are the two major determinants for residents in deciding where to seek for health care. Access to healthcare facilities is also very high with about 83.6% of residents living within 30 minutes to a healthcare facility. Full implementation of the scheme will reduce out of pocket (OOP) spending on healthcare and prevent catastrophic health expenditure among residents of Katsina State.
Keywords: Healthcare, Utilization, Health-Seeking-Behaviors.
