Determinants of Household Expenditure on Health: Evidence from Nigeria
Abstract
Health has been a major issue in Nigeria and so occurs on the concurrent list of the government. Public and private health expenditure notwithstanding, ill-health has been identified as one of the factors responsible for counter productivity of citizens and poverty in Nigerian households. Healthcare delivery is poor and costly. Therefore, people often resort to self-medication as well as traditional means of healthcare, which has claimed the lives of many citizens. Hence, this study majorly examined the factors influencing household health expenditure in Nigeria. Secondary data was sourced from the Harmonized Nigeria Living Standard Survey (2010). Ordinary Least Square (OLS) technique was used to show the relationship between the dependent variable, household health expenditure and the explanatory variables: household size, sex and age of household head, marital status, zone, sector, consultation fees, hospitalization, medicine and health insurance. The result revealed that five out of the ten variables were statistically significant and positively related to health expenditure. These are household size, consultation fees, hospitalization, medicine and health insurance. Furthermore, about 54% of the households sampled, having between 1 and 4 members spent more on health. Hence, it was recommended that, the Nigerian government should increase allocation to health and promote public awareness on the need for a moderate family size, so that households will be able to cater for their health needs. Finally, awareness on the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) should be increased and extended to all Nigerian citizens.
References
2. Akande, T.M. and Bello, O. (2002). National Health Insurance Scheme in Nigeria. Medilor Journal, Vol. 7, No. 1.
3. Becker, G.S. (1967). ‘Human Capital and the Personal Distribution of Income: An Analytical Approach’. Woytinsky Lecture No. 1. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, Institute of Public Administration.
4. Behrman, J.R. and Deolalikar, A.B. (1988) Health and Nutrition. In: Chenery, H. and Srinivan, T.N., Eds., Handbook of Development Economics, Amsterdam, North Holland, 1.
5. Behrman, J.R., Pollak, R.A. and Taubman, P. (1982). ‘Parental Preferences and Provision for their Progeny’. Journal on Political Economy, Vol. 90, No. 1, February.
6. Bhabesh, S. and Himanshu, R.S. (2008). ‘Determinants of Household Health Expenditure: Case of Urban Orissa’. Dr. SRK Government Arts College, Yanam, India. Online at http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/6489/MPRA Paper No. 6489, posted 1. January 2008 08:32 UTC
7. Bloom, D.E., Canning, D. & Sevilla, J. (2004). ‘The Effect of Public Health on Economic Growth: A Production Function Approach’. World Development 32(1). Elsevier.
8. Bolin, K., Jacobson, L., Lindgren, B. (2000). The family as the health producer — when spouses act strategically. Studies in Health Economics 30, Department of Economics and Department of Community Medicine, Lund University.
9. Central Bank of Nigeria (2000). ‘The Changing Structure of the Nigeria Economy and Implication for Development’. Realm Publications Communications Ltd., Lagos.
10. Central Bank of Nigeria (2016). ‘Statistical Bulletin’. Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
11. Cosimo, M. and Marco M. (2012). ‘The Determinants of Health Expenditure in Italian Regions’ Roma Tre University Via G. Chiabrera 199, Rome (RM), 00145, Italy.
12. Dhoro, N.L., Chidoko, C., Sakuhuni, R.C. and Gwaindepi, C. (2011). ‘Economic Determinants of Public Health Care Expenditure in Zimbabwe’. Great Zimbabwe University, Faculty of Commerce, Economics Department,
13. Federal Ministry of Health (2005). Zero Draft “IMCI National Review Meeting” Federal Ministry of Health Abuja, Nigeria.
14. Gertler, P., Van der Gaag, J. & Gertler, P. (1990). ‘The willingness to pay for medical care: evidence from two developing countries’. Baltimore, M.D, Johns Hopkins University Press.
15. Grossman, M. (1972). The demand for health: a theoretical and empirical investigation. NBER Occasional Paper 119, New York.
16. HERFON (2006). ‘Nigeria Health Review’, Health Reform Foundation of Nigeria (HERFON), Kenbim Press Ltd, Ibadan.
17. Hjortsberg, C. (2004). ‘Determinants of household health care expenditure in Zambia’. Department of Economics, Lund University, IHE, The Swedish Institute for Health Economics, Lund University Center for Health Economics (LUCHE).
18. Ilesanmi, O. (2014). ‘Determinants of Household Healthcare Expenditure in an African Country’. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2543002
19. Jacobson, L. (1999). ‘The family as producer of health, An extended Grossman model’ Departments of Community Medicine and Economics, Lund University, Malmö/Lund, Sweden.
20. Lavado, R.F.; Brooks, B.PC; Hanlon, M. (2013). ‘Estimating health expenditure shares from household surveys’. Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, 2301 5th Avenue, Suite 600, Seattle, WA 98121, United States of America.
21. Le Grand, J. (1982). ‘The strategy of equality: Redistribution and the social services’. Allen and Unwin, London.
22. Baba, M. and Omotara, B. (2012). ‘Nigeria Public Health Gains and Challenges’. College of Medical Sciences, University of Maiduguri, Nigeria; PEAH 2012.
23. Mehrabi, Y., Payandeh, A., Ghahroodi, Z.R. & Zayeri, F. (2018). ‘Determinants of household health expenditure: A population-based study’. Journal of Paramedical Sciences 9(2).
24. Moses, K. M. (2013). ‘The Determinants of Health-Seeking Behavior in a Nairobi Slum, Kenya’ European Scientific Journal, 9(8).
25. Muurinen, J.M. (1982). ‘Demand for health: A generalised Grossman model’. Journal of Economics, 1.
26. Masvingo, Zimbabwe and Limpopo University, Faculty of Education, Polokwane, South Africa. IJER | November – December, 2011. Available online@www.ijeronline.com
27. Olasehinde, N. & Olaniyan, O. (2017). ‘Determinants of household health expenditure in Nigeria’. International Journal of Social Economics 44(12).
28. Oyekale, A.S. (2012). ‘Factors Influencing Households’ Willingness to Pay for National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in Osun State, Nigeria’. Ethno Med. 6(3), South Africa.
29. Parker S.W. and Wong R. (1997). ‘Household income and healthcare expenditures in Mexico’. Health Policy, Vol. 40.
30. World Health Organisation (2001). ‘Macroeconomic and Health; Investing in Health for economic Development’. Report of the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health, WHO, Geneva.
31. Sen, A.K. (1999). ‘Health in Development’. International Journal of Public Health, 77(8).
32. Timyan, J., Griffey Brechin, S., Measham, D. & Ogunleye, B. (1993). ‘Access to care: more than a problem of distance’ in Koblinksy, M., Timyan, J. and Gay, J. (eds), The Health of Women: A global perspective, Boulder Co: Westview Press.
33. Wagstaff, A.; Van Doorslaer, E. (1993). Equity in the finance and delivery of health care: concepts and definitions. In van Doorslaer, E., Wagstaff, A. & Rutter, F. (eds.). Equity in the finance and delivery of health care (pp. 7-19). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
34. Woottipong S. (2001). Determinants of and Inequity in Household Expenditure on Health Care in Thailand. Faculty of Graduate Studies, Mahidol University 2001. ISBN 974-04-0674-2 copyright of Mahidol University. Ipsr…health repository.org\...\THCT.
35. XU Ke, P. S. and Holly A. (2011). The Determinant of Health Expenditure: A Country - Level panel Data Analysis. World Health Organization working paper, December 2011.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
.png){kind=logo}
