Determinants of demand for health care services in rural Zimbabwe: a case of Bikita district, Masvingo province
Abstract
The study investigated the determinants of demand for health care services in rural Zimbabwe
using household data from Bikita District in Masvingo Province. Specifically the study
examined the influence of socio- economic and institutional factors such as household income,
household size, distance to the nearest health centre and availability of drugs on the
probability of seeking of health care from health facilities. From 15 wards which were
selected for the survey, 250 households were randomly selected and interviewed. A selfadministered
questionnaire was used to collect data between January and February 2013.
The study used a logit model to find the determinants of demand for health care services
based on 176 households that had reported illness of a member within the last three months
before the survey. The study revealed the statistical significance of severity of illness,
household size, education of the household head, household income, distance to the nearest
health facility and availability of drugs as determinants of demand for health care services.
Distance to the nearest health facility and household size were found to negatively affect the
demand for health care services whereas household income and availability of drugs were
found to positively influence demand for health care services. To increase the demand for
health care services, the study recommends policies that aim to shorten the distance people
travel to health facilities such as introducing community based mobile clinics. Other major
recommendations of the study include increasing government funding to rural health facilities
so as to ensure the availability of drugs and implementing income generating projects to
improve rural household incomes.
Sponsor
African Economic Research ConsortiumSubject
health care servicesrural Zimbabwe
household income
rural health facilities
primary health care
village health workers
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