Child healthcare seeking behaviour in Kenya
Discussion Paper No. 50
Abstract
Although child healthcare receives enormous attention from governments, households and international organizations in developing countries, the economics of child healthcare in Kenya remain unexplored, denying this field the tools of analysis that could lead to optimal decision making. Good health in children requires significant amounts of resources. Healthcare providers will need to provide quality service while household will need to access health facilities to achieve maximum health benefits.
This study identifies and measures determinants of child health seeking behaviour in Kenya, using a multinomial logit model. The study analyzed four choices: public (government) hospital, mission (private not for profit) hospital, private (private for profit) hospital and other treatment facilities not in the three presented cadres. Out of a 100 children who seek advice for fever, 44 visit public health facilities , 10 visit mission hospitals or clinics, and 25 visit private health facilities. The remaining visit other facilities for healthcare, including herbalists, shops and community health workers.
The study findings reveal that distance to the health facility, sex of child, total number of siblings, mother’s level of education, and mother’s age determine the choice of facility for seeking advice for fever. As observed in most studies, the mother’s level of education is strongly linked to child survival. Education exposes mothers to information about better nutrition, use of contraceptives to space births, and knowledge about childhood illness and treatment. Childhood mortality rates are considerably higher among children born to women in their forties, and lowest among children whose mothers are age 20-29 years at the time of birth. The length of birth interval has a significant impact on a child’s chances of survival, with short birth intervals considerably reducing the chances of survival. As the birth interval gets longer, the mortality risk is reduced considerably. Children born less than two years after a prior sibling suffer substantially higher risks of death than children born after intervals of two or more years. Size of the child at birth also has a bearing on the childhood mortality rates. Children whose birth size is small or very small have a 50 percent greater risk of dying before their first birthday than those whose birth size is average or larger.
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