Abstract #219  -  Demand-side barriers to health care service utilization by PWHIV in the north central Nigeria
Authors:   Presenting Author:   Mr Adeniyi Olaleye - University of Ibadan
Additional Authors:  Mr Adeniyi Olaleye, Dr Fidelis Ogwumike, Dr Olanrewaju Olaniyan,
Aim: Efforts of the Nigerian government and donor agencies to achieve the goal of universal access to HIV treatment have been dominated by supply-side considerations including making ARV drugs available, improving the skills and capacity of health workers, improving protocol of treatment and infrastructure of health facilities. Yet these interventions are important, but they do not address many of the barriers to accessing services faced by many PLHIV. This study investigated the demand-side barriers to access and utilization of health care services by PLHIV in the north central Nigeria.
Method / Issue: The study used a multi-stage cluster (probability) sampling method to select 1056 PLHIV who were members of support groups within 12 local government areas spread across Federal Capital Territory, Benue, Nassarawa and Plateau states in the north central Nigerian. The randomly selected PLHIV were asked about problems they faced in accessing and utilizing health care services using structured questionnaire. The data were entered and analysed with SPSS statistical software.
Results / Comments: The PLHIV identified major problems they faced in utilizing health care services to include stigma from community, long travel distance and high cost of transportation to health facilities. More than half (53%) of the respondents reported having problems in coping with the high transportation cost to health facility, 45% had problems with the distance they had to travel in order to receive health care services. About 30% of the respondents mentioned stigma within the community as one of the major hindrances in using health care services. Background characteristics of PLHIV such as illiteracy and inability to speak English language of Hausa (the predominant language in the northern Nigeria) were also found to create barriers to utilization of modern health facilities.
Discussion: Demand-side barriers may be as important as supply factors in deterring patients from obtaining health care services. Understanding the factors that act as barriers to utilizing HIV health care services at individual, household and community is useful as inputs in planning and implementation of HIV treatment programs and it’s scale-up.
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