The study aims to analyze the determinants of health care seeking in households in Abidjan during an episode of illness. The data for this study came from a household survey in the city of Abidjan. Based on the data collected, univariate and multivariate analyses provided explanatory elements for the population’s health care utilization behaviors and the use and non-use of health services. The results of this research show the predominance of self-medication in the therapeutic use of young people and adults. The use of modern health care services is delayed and only occurs when the disease becomes very serious. The therapeutic itinerary is thus long, difficult, and costly, especially for adults. In addition, we focused on residence throughout the analysis because we believe that this factor influences household use of care. The results of the univariate analyses often highlighted the role of the “neighborhood” factor at the expense of the subdivision and building density criteria. To continue this approach, we constructed a logistic regression model with this location variable. If at first the fact of residing in a given neighborhood was associated with the use of health care, by integrating other independent variables such as religion, level of equipment, etc., the association disappeared. The association disappeared. With the same level of equipment or the same religious affiliation, there is less of a neighborhood effect. We have therefore demonstrated a composition effect (individual socio-demographic factors) rather than a context effect (location factors). Further multilevel analyses would be necessary to investigate this question further and to assess the actual role of contextual factors in the use of health care in Abidjan.
Cite this paper
Ymba, M. (2022). Determinant of Health Care Utilization Behavior in Households in the City of Abidjan during an Episode of Illness. Open Access Library Journal, 9, e8913. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1108913.
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