Determinants of Household Healthcare Expenditures in Rural Kenya

Abstract

Despite a country’s income improving, it does not obviously eliminate catastrophic expenditures. The study was conducted with an objective of establishing determinants of household expenditures in rural Kenya. The specific objectives were; to determine trends of household out-of-pocket spending on health services in rural Kenya, to determine the pattern of healthcare services utilization in rural Kenya and to establish the core determinants of household healthcare expenditures in rural Kenya. The study made use of the latest Kenya Household Health Expenditure and Utilization Survey (2013) dataset. The study used a multiple regression model to estimate the impact of respective determinants on health expenditures in rural Kenya. Ordinary Least Square estimation technique was adopted in estimation. Significance was tested at 1%, 5% and 10% levels. The findings indicate that; gender of the respondents, marital status, medical insurance and chronic illness were found to be positively related with health expenditure whereas education levels (primary, secondary and higher levels), wealth index (second and third wealth quintiles) were found to be significant predictors but had a negative relationship with health expenditures. Based on the findings, the study suggests for equality between men and women when it comes to health seeking and the use of incentives as well as training on men to practice preventive care so as to reduce costs going into hospitals for treatment unlike their female counterparts. Similarly, the study suggests for enhancing strategies that could facilitate couples to be healthier and live longer. The study suggests for creation and implementation of awareness programmes and share across organizations, schools or government agencies. There is need to create empowerment programmes for the population so that they lower hospital visits and consequently lowering health expenditures. There is need for the government to provide more public health facilities to boost or facilitate more use of the subsidized services in the rural areas. The national and county governments to ensure presence of transparency and addressing underlying inefficiency, since it’s difficult to know the actual cost of healthcare. There is need to reduce the cost and to improve the quality of care for chronic diseases.