AFFORDABILITY OF COST OF HEALTHCARE SERVICES AND CARE SEEKING BEHAVIOUR AMONG WOMEN OF REPRODUCTIVE AGE IN NORTHERN STATES OF NIGERIA

Abstract

Healthcare seeking behaviour plays a key role in the health and well-being of women and their infants. Delay in seeking appropriate healthcare can be costly and dangerous. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether affordability of cost of healthcare services determines care seeking behaviour among women of reproductive age in Northern States of Nigeria. The study adopted a correlation research design to investigate 504 respondents drawn from six states in the Northern States of Nigeria. The states (Kogi, Niger, Bauchi, Gombe, Kano and Zamfara) were drawn from the three geo-political zones in Northern States of Nigeria through stratified random sampling technique, while the respondents were sampled from those states through purposive sampling technique. A close–ended questionnaire was used to obtain responses from the respondents and data collected were analyzed using SPSS/Pc statistical package. Pearson's correlation between mean scores of affordability of costs of healthcare services (3.337) and care seeking behaviour among women of reproductive age (3.272) showed r-value of 0.463 (critical value: 0.087) and a P-value of 0.000.  The result showed that affordability of cost of healthcare services significantly determines care seeking behaviour among women of reproductive age in northern states of Nigeria. Based on the finding, it was recommended that cost alleviation for women seeking maternal healthcare services should be put in place by the state governments to motivate them to patronize the services. The state governments should endeavour to provide more healthcare delivery services at affordable prices to the women in order to encourage them to adopt positive healthcare seeking behaviour necessary for effective prevention and control of grave maternal diseases.