Demand for primary health care among young adults in Botswana
Narain Sinha and Wanangwa Vitumbiko Wanda
University of Botswana, Botswana
Centre for Youth and Children Affairs, Malawi
: J Health Inform Manag
Abstract
Young adults face numerous health problems related to drug and alcohol abuse, injuries, sexually transmitted diseases, lack of health insurance and unwanted pregnancies to name a few. Despite all the problems faced by young adults, little attention has been given to young adults and the healthcare access problems that they face. In Botswana, the government invests a lot in educating young adults and the benefits of this investment have to be realized. Since the health problems facing young adults are likely to affect the young adults’ productivity both currently and in the future, this study investigates factors influencing healthcare demand and access by young adults in Botswana. This study employed a structured questionnaire for data collection. The binary logistic model was used to find the factors determining utilization and access to healthcare facilities. Additional secondary data on the frequency of visits by gender was obtained from the university clinic the results show that stigmatization reduces the likelihood of utilizing healthcare facilities, while health insurance and distance increase the likelihood of utilizing health facilities. Furthermore, the results show that gender effect significantly influences the utilization of health facilities.
Biography
E-mail: vw.wanda@ymail.com
