ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE IN A RURAL AND AN URBAN COMMUNITY IN EDO STATE, NIGERIA
MONDAY IKPONMWOSA OSARENMWINDA1,*, AYANBUEZE EFE EGONMWAN1
1. Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacy Practice, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Benin, Benin
City-Nigeria
Afr. J Pharm Res Dev; Volume 15(3): 1-8 ; 2023
ABSTRACT
Access to healthcare services is critical to good health, yet rural residents face a variety of access barriers. The study aimed to investigate access to healthcare in a rural and an urban community in Edo State. In a cross-sectional, house-to-house survey, data on access to healthcare were collected using well-structured, self-developed, and modified WHO indicators to measure access to and use of medicine for chronic diseases. Opinions to healthcare access by the participants were also examined.. Paired t-test was performed to compare the results for the two communities. About half (51.4%) of the rural participants had never consulted a medical doctor in the last 12 months compared to 20.6% of their counterparts from Oka community who had visited a medical doctor more than 4 times within a year. There were significant differences (p-value < 0.05) between access to healthcare regarding distance, transportation cost, ever seen a doctor within last one year, if ever been told that blood sugar and blood pressure was high and to take medication among rural and urban respondents. Both rural and urban communities had positive opinion to access to healthcare, as most of them agreed about the barriers to healthcare access. The mean score on opinion was more than 2, this was however, not significant in the two communities with p-value > 0.05. There was a better access to healthcare among urban community dwellers compared to the rural residents. Respondents from both rural and urban communities had positive opinion about healthcare access. Structural barriers such as limited healthcare professionals and long distance to rural healthcare facility contributed to poor access to health.
Keywords: Access, Healthcare, Medicine, Rural, Urban Community, Chronic Diseases
Email of correspondence: ikponmwosa.osarenmwinda@uniben.edu;