Factors Affecting Utilization of Health Stations in Yererna Kereyu Awraja
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Date
1989-05
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This case control study was conducted on a sample of
1000 users of services of health stations (cases) and 1000
non-users of the services (controls) during the study
period which was between October 17 and November 26 1988.
The study was done in 6 randomly selected health stations
and villages within a 5 km radius of the health stations in
Yererna Kereyu Awraja, central Ethiopia, where the author
is the district health manager. The major objective of
the stud y was to determine factors influencing the
utilization of health stations in the Awraja. Information
from the study population was collected on different
factors which possibly affect utilization, including
demographic factors, such as age, sex, occupation,
ethnici ty and education; Socio-cul tural factors, such as
people's at ti tude toward the health workers and services;
and economic status of the people. The mean age of the
study population was 20.8 years and 60.9% of the subjects
were women. Farmers constituted 53.3%, the Oromo ethnic
group 59.7% and the literacy rate was 48.3%. Case contro l
analyses of the 2 groups showed that non-utilizers were
more likely than utilizers to come from the younger or
older age groups, to be female, to be a farmer, to be from the Oromo ethnic group, & to have a lower level of
education. There was also a difference between cases and
controls in perceived travel time to the health units,
perceived quality of the services, knowledge about free
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services, knowledge about the importance, and availability
of some of the services, and the income pattern. There was
no significant difference between the users and non-users
with regard to religion, marital status of the respondents,
or who advised the individuals to use or not to use the
services. These differences indicate a need to teach
communi ties about health & health services and to reduce
socio-cultural barriers to utilization of the services.
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Keywords
Factors Affecting Utilization of Health Sta tions