Willingness to Pay for Cancer Screening in Dagoretti North Constituency: Contingent Valuation Estimates
Abstract
Statistical estimates indicate that cancer is the third highest cause of mortality in Kenya with an
estimated 7% of deaths per year (20,000 deaths per year) and 28,000 new cases per year. Globally,
cancer is recognized as second only to cardiovascular diseases in causing deaths; constituting
nearly 13% (over 7.9 million deaths) of global annual mortality. The 'disease burden' exacerbated
by cancer is thus a cause for worry in many an economy. Early detection of cancer through
screening continue to receive a lot of advocacy as a principal approach to fighting cancer
worldwide and more so in low resource settings such as Kenya. But the question is, given that
screening for cancer is not free (except for anecdotal cases of free screening campaigns) then what
amount are people willing to pay for it and what, if any, influences their willingness and by
extension the amount to pay? This study, through a contingent investigation (CYM approach), has
attempted to tackle this question. The study focused on Dagoretti North Constituency in where a
previous study had found low uptake of cancer screening. A pre-tested interviewer-administered
questionnaire was used. A log-log model was used to investigate the relationship or elasticity
between WTP and the factors that were hypothesized to influence it. To the extent that few, if any,
studies in Kenya have examined the willingness to pay for cancer screening as a lifesaving
intervention, this study is a contribution towards filling this gap. Findings from this study have
valuable implications for health policy making with respect to fighting cancer. The study is also
an addition to the existing literature on healthcare seeking behaviour and more particularly to the
hitherto unexplored area of the econorn ics of cancer screening.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
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