Health Policy and Planning, Vol 14, 191-197, Copyright © 1999 by Oxford University Press
R Noorali, S Luby and M Rahbar
To reduce mortality from common childhood illnesses such as diarrhoea and
upper respiratory infections, it is important that health services are
available and used appropriately. Physical accessibility to a health
facility may influence its use, particularly in rural areas.We assessed
whether use of government services for treatment of the three most common
acute childhood illnesses (fever, diarrhoea and upper respiratory
infections) was influenced by the physical accessibility of the government
primary health care centres. We analyzed data from a household survey which
was collected between November 1992 and January 1993, from 139 randomly
selected villages located around 14 government facilities in Thatta, a
rural district of Pakistan.There were 691 children under 5 years of age who
suffered from the three acute illnesses; 85% of these children used either
a government or a private service. Children living at less than 4 km from a
government facility made 22% less use of that facility than those living 4
km or more away. After controlling for the effects of distance from a
private facility and treatment cost in a multiple logistic regression
model, children living less than 4 km from a government facility were no
more likely to use the facility than those living 4 km or more away
(Adjusted Odds Ratio: 1.01, 95% Confidence Interval: 0.68-1.50).These
results suggest that factors other than distance are the primary
determinants of use of government services for treating children in the
Thatta district. To increase the use of government health services,
policymakers should assess carefully the factors determining the use of
existing facilities, before they plan the building of more health
facilities. Further studies are needed to examine the management of health
facilities and the clients' perception of health-care providers.
ARTICLES
Research report. Does use of a government service depend on distance from the health facility?
Department of Community Health Services, The Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  M Mahmud Khan, D. R Hotchkiss, A. A Berruti, and P. L Hutchinson Geographic aspects of poverty and health in Tanzania: does living in a poor area matter? Health Policy Plan., March 1, 2006; 21(2): 110 - 122. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 S. James, D. Chisholm, R. S. Murthy, K. K. Kumar, K. Sekar, K. Saeed, and M. Mubbashar Demand for, Access to and Use of Community Mental Health Care: Lessons from a Demonstration Project in India and Pakistan International Journal of Social Psychiatry, September 1, 2002; 48(3): 163 - 176. [Abstract] [PDF]
|
|