Determinants of Health Seeking Behaviour in Uganda: Is it Just Income and user fees that are Important? Development economics and Public Policy

Abstract This paper uses Uganda National Household Survey (UNHS) data to investigate, via a discrete choice model, the main determinants associated with seeking private, government and pharmacy based health care, for both adults and children. More specifically, and particularly important given that almost 40% of the Ugandan population are below the poverty line and that policies on user fees have recently changed, we investigate if income and user fees are the main factors which influence health care demand in Uganda. After controlling for endogeneity issues we find that income is strongly associated with increased health care usage, across all age ranges but especially for women, and that user fees are less significant than one might first expect, especially when compared to having a health unit within close proximity. Furthermore, we find significant differences in health seeking behaviour to be related to age and gender, and that increased levels of education are consistently associated with a transfer away from government provided health care, possibly indicating that people regard its quality as inferior