Demand for health care in Kenya :The case of Vihiga District

Abstract

This study analyses the factors that influence the demand for health care services in Vihiga District. We start from the presumption that when households fall sick, they make decisions on whether to seek or not seek care, and on where to seek care if they decide to do so. We employ a discrete choice model to investigate how household characteristics, type of sickness and quality of services influence these health care decisions. For those who choose to visit health care facilities, the study goes further to investigate how those characteristics, nature of sickness and service quality, influence the number of visits they make to the facilities. The main findings of the study are that prices, income, distance, education and quality of the services are the main determinants of demand for health care in the study area. Other determinants of type of service demanded and the rate at which the services are utilized include service prices, and the number of days people had missed work due to illness. The number of work-days missed is positively correlated with the number of visits to health facilities (the rate of service utilization) while prices are negatively correlated with service utilization. Our findings reveal that malaria is not given the attention it deserves, as it is one of the main killer diseases in the study district. The results further reveal that female-headed households have higher probabilities of seeking care than those of male-headed households, which is suggestive of higher morbidity incidences among female-headed households. The study concludes with policy recommendations based on these findings.