IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v214y2018icp83-90.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

‘When I don't have money to buy the drugs, I just manage.’—Exploring the lived experience of persons with physical disabilities in accessing primary health care services in rural Ghana

Author

Listed:
  • Dassah, Ebenezer
  • Aldersey, Heather M.
  • McColl, Mary Ann
  • Davison, Colleen

Abstract

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities recognizes the rights of persons with disabilities' access to health care, including primary health care (PHC). However, growing evidence indicates that individuals in rural areas generally experience health access issues, and these issues are even worse for those with physical disabilities. Knowledge about such experiences is critical for policy design and clinical practice to promote PHC access for persons with physical disabilities in rural areas. This study seeks to explore the experiences of persons with physical disabilities in accessing PHC services in the predominantly rural Upper West Region of Ghana. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 18 participants living with physical disabilities, and used both deductive and inductive approaches to analyze the data. Participants shared experiences at three broad levels: the health system level, individual level and health-seeking behaviors level. Within the health system level, we identified three main categories: service availability (presence of health facilities, deficient drug supply and lack of providers), acceptability (positive and negative attitudes of providers and perceived high and low quality of care) and accommodation (inaccessible health facilities and equipment). The experiences at the individual level included financial constraints and mobility to health care facilities. Health-seeking behaviors related to how the individual reacted and responded to access barriers, which included searching for traditional healing, resorting to self-medication, making sacrifices in managing their conditions and relying on spiritual means. The information provided in this study is potentially important to policy makers and PHC providers as it presents evidence on the barriers and facilitators to PHC access in a rural setting. In particular, understanding individuals' experiences and how they develop health-seeking behaviors to overcome access barriers will be critical for policy design and client-centered service delivery in rural Ghana and potentially other low- and middle-income countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Dassah, Ebenezer & Aldersey, Heather M. & McColl, Mary Ann & Davison, Colleen, 2018. "‘When I don't have money to buy the drugs, I just manage.’—Exploring the lived experience of persons with physical disabilities in accessing primary health care services in rural Ghana," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 214(C), pages 83-90.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:214:y:2018:i:c:p:83-90
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.08.023
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953618304477
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.08.023?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yeo, Rebecca & Moore, Karen, 2003. "Including Disabled People in Poverty Reduction Work: "Nothing About Us, Without Us"," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 571-590, March.
    2. Campbell, S. M. & Roland, M. O. & Buetow, S. A., 2000. "Defining quality of care," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 51(11), pages 1611-1625, December.
    3. Jehu-Appiah, Caroline & Aryeetey, Genevieve & Spaan, Ernst & de Hoop, Thomas & Agyepong, Irene & Baltussen, Rob, 2011. "Equity aspects of the National Health Insurance Scheme in Ghana: Who is enrolling, who is not and why?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 157-165, January.
    4. United Nations UN, 2015. "Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," Working Papers id:7559, eSocialSciences.
    5. Jenna Dixon & Eric Y Tenkorang & Isaac Luginaah, 2011. "Ghana's National Health Insurance Scheme: Helping the Poor or Leaving Them Behind?," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 29(6), pages 1102-1115, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Halvorsen, Thomas & Munthali, Alister & Braathen, Stine Hellum & Rød, Jan Ketil & Eide, Arne Henning, 2021. "Using locational data in a novel mixed-methods sequence design: Identifying critical health care barriers for people with disabilities in Malawi," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    2. Herberholz, Chantal & Phuntsho, Sonam, 2021. "Medical, transportation and spiritual out-of-pocket health expenditure on outpatient and inpatient visits in Bhutan," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 273(C).
    3. Magnus Mfoafo-M’Carthy & Jeff D. Grischow & Nicole Stocco, 2020. "Cloak of Invisibility: A Literature Review of Physical Disability in Ghana," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(1), pages 21582440199, January.
    4. Swanwick, Ruth & Fobi, Dani & Fobi, Joyce & Appau, Obed, 2022. "Shaping the early care and education of young deaf children in Ghana," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Paulina Schiappacasse & Bernhard Müller & Le Thuy Linh, 2019. "Towards Responsible Aggregate Mining in Vietnam," Resources, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-15, August.
    2. Pina Puntillo, 2023. "Circular economy business models: Towards achieving sustainable development goals in the waste management sector—Empirical evidence and theoretical implications," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 941-954, March.
    3. Schlör, Holger & Venghaus, Sandra & Hake, Jürgen-Friedrich, 2018. "The FEW-Nexus city index – Measuring urban resilience," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 382-392.
    4. Jean-Louis Combes & Alexandru Minea & Pegdéwendé Nestor Sawadogo, 2019. "Assessing the effects of combating illicit financial flows on domestic tax revenue mobilization in developing countries," Post-Print halshs-02315734, HAL.
    5. Nelson, Ewan & Warren, Peter, 2020. "UK transport decoupling: On track for clean growth in transport?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 39-51.
    6. Ibrahim Ari & Muammer Koc, 2018. "Sustainable Financing for Sustainable Development: Understanding the Interrelations between Public Investment and Sovereign Debt," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-25, October.
    7. R. Ebrahimi & S. Choobchian & H. Farhadian & I. Goli & E. Farmandeh & H. Azadi, 2022. "Investigating the effect of vocational education and training on rural women’s empowerment," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, December.
    8. Benjamin Nölting & Bettina König & Anne B. Zimmermann & Antonietta Di Giulio & Martina Schäfer & Flurina Schneider, 2022. "Dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic: an opportunity to reflect on sustainability research," Sustainability Nexus Forum, Springer, vol. 30(1), pages 11-27, December.
    9. Rashmi Jaipal, 2017. "Psychology at the Crossroads," Psychology and Developing Societies, , vol. 29(2), pages 125-159, September.
    10. Bárbara Galleli & Elder Semprebon & Joyce Aparecida Ramos dos Santos & Noah Emanuel Brito Teles & Mateus Santos de Freitas-Martins & Raquel Teodoro da Silva Onevetch, 2021. "Institutional Pressures, Sustainable Development Goals and COVID-19: How Are Organisations Engaging?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-21, November.
    11. Mitra, Sophie, 2010. "Disability Cash Transfers in the Context of Poverty and Unemployment: The Case of South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(12), pages 1692-1709, December.
    12. Sagarika Dey & Priyanka Devi, 2019. "Impact of TVET on Labour Market Outcomes and Women’s Empowerment in Rural Areas: A Case Study from Cachar District, Assam," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 13(3), pages 357-371, December.
    13. Rostami-Tabar, Bahman & Ali, Mohammad M. & Hong, Tao & Hyndman, Rob J. & Porter, Michael D. & Syntetos, Aris, 2022. "Forecasting for social good," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 1245-1257.
    14. Maria Sassi, 2020. "A SEM Approach to the Direct and Indirect Links between WaSH Services and Access to Food in Countries in Protracted Crises: The Case of Western Bahr-el-Ghazal State, South Sudan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-13, November.
    15. Seebacher, Moritz, 2023. "Pathways to progress: The complementarity of bicycles and road infrastructure for girls’ education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    16. Christina Tsouti & Christina Papadaskalopoulou & Angeliki Konsta & Panagiotis Andrikopoulos & Margarita Panagiotopoulou & Sofia Papadaki & Christos Boukouvalas & Magdalini Krokida & Katerina Valta, 2023. "Investigating the Environmental Benefits of Novel Films for the Packaging of Fresh Tomatoes Enriched with Antimicrobial and Antioxidant Compounds through Life Cycle Assessment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-22, May.
    17. Olga Stepanova & Magdalena Romanov, 2021. "Urban Planning as a Strategy to Implement Social Sustainability Policy Goals? The Case of Temporary Housing for Immigrants in Gothenburg, Sweden," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-17, February.
    18. Alberto Bertossi & Stefania Troiano & Francesco Marangon, 2022. "Where is sustainability? An assessment of vending products," RIVISTA DI STUDI SULLA SOSTENIBILITA', FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 0(1), pages 155-180.
    19. Michel, Hanno, 2020. "From local to global: The role of knowledge, transfer, and capacity building for successful energy transitions," Discussion Papers, Research Group Digital Mobility and Social Differentiation SP III 2020-603, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    20. Hervé Corvellec & Johan Hultman & Anne Jerneck & Susanne Arvidsson & Johan Ekroos & Niklas Wahlberg & Timothy W. Luke, 2021. "Resourcification: A non‐essentialist theory of resources for sustainable development," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(6), pages 1249-1256, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:214:y:2018:i:c:p:83-90. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.