The determinants of access to health care services : empirical evidence from African countries.
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Date
2015
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Abstract
It has been acknowledged that access to health care is instrumental in improving health status; and
better health status has been considered crucial to socio-economic development. However, there is
insufficient evidence on the factors that determine access to health care to inform policy makers.
To this end, this study aimed to identify the key determinants of access to health care in Africa,
distinguishing between the short and long-run determinants of such access. Panel data from 37
African countries were collected from the World Bank and World Health Organisation for the
period 1995-2012 and analysed using a dynamic panel autoregressive distributed lags (ARDL)
model. With the preliminary test suggesting common long-run coefficients and individual shortrun
coefficients, the model was estimated using the pooled mean group (PMG) estimators. The
study found that a long-run and short-run stable relationship exists between access to health care
and the variables included in the model, with income being the strongest determinant. The income
elasticity of access to health care was 0.1149, suggesting that access to health care is a non-luxury
good. These findings imply that income is an important determinant of access to health care and
should therefore be the focus of policy making to improve such access in African countries.
Description
Master of Commerce in Economics. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville 2015.
Keywords
Health services accessibility--Africa., Medical care--Africa., Medical policy--Africa., Discrimination in medical care--Africa., Minorities--Medical care--Africa., Theses--Economics., Access to health care.