Determinants of Community Underutilization of Primary Health Care Services in Ibesikpo Asutan Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom State

ABSTRACTThe study examined the determinants of community under-utilization of Primary Healthcare services in Ibeskipo Asutan Local Government Area of Aka Ibom State. Four objectives, four research questions and four hypotheses were formulated respectively to guide the study. The literature review was extensively done under the theoretical, conceptual and empirical frameworks. The descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The study population was every resident in Ibesikpo Asutan Local Government Area from age of 13 years and above. A sample size of 280 were randomly selected for the study using multi-stage sampling technique. Researcher-structured questionnaire titled: Determinants for community underutilization of primary healthcare services (DCUPHS) was the main instrument used to collect data for the study. The research questions were answered and the hypotheses were tested. Simple percentage was adopted to answer the research questions while chi-square was adopted to test the hypotheses to determine their significance. The result from the study revealed that socio-economic status, health insurance coverage, access to healthcare facilitates and perceived need for care has significant influence on the primary Healthcare patients in Ibesikpo Asutan Local Government. It was recommended among others that the Local Government Authorities should develop and maintain roads leading to remote areas to ensure better access to healthcare facilities, implement mobile clinics to provide services directly to underserved and remote communities and as well provide subsidized or free transportation services for patients traveling to Primary healthcare facilities.