IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/tei/journl/v9y2016i3p34-42.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Determinants of Hospital Length of Stay in Nigeria

Author

Listed:
  • Conrad Y. Puozaa

    (Delta State University, BROOM 253, Cleveland MS 38733, USA)

Abstract

Purpose- Hospital length of stay (LOS) does not only signal the seriousness of illness, it can also lead to catastrophic cost for patients or households. This paper examines the factors that determine LOS in Nigeria; a country where more than 99% of the cost of health care is borne by patients. Design/methodology/approach- The dataset, consisting of 1,150 people who reported one or more overnight stays in a hospital, comes from the two waves of the Nigerian General Household Survey. Due to the overdispersion and the truncation of LOS at zero, a zero-truncated negative binomial regression model was adopted to establish the causal relationship between LOS and patients’ predisposing, enabling and needs-related characteristics. Findings- LOS tends to increase with the following factors: age, household size, availability of formal medical care facilities, and the severity of illness. However, there is an inverse relationship between LOS and the cost of care, being a female, resource endowment in the area, and utilization of preventive care. People in lower and higher socioeconomic brackets tend to have higher LOS than people in the middle socioeconomic bracket. Research limitations - Actual description of diseases respondents suffered from, which is important in determining the severity of illness, was not available. I relied on a proxy to measure the severity of illness. Implications- Policy makers in developing countries continue to explore strategies for reducing poverty and vulnerabilities among the populace. An understanding of the determinants of LOS can help inform policymakers, hospital administrators and patients regarding health care reforms, planning for patients LOS, and planning for the period of hospitalization, respectively. Originality/value- To the best of my knowledge, this is the first paper to empirically examine the determinants of LOS in Nigeria.

Suggested Citation

  • Conrad Y. Puozaa, 2016. "The Determinants of Hospital Length of Stay in Nigeria," International Journal of Business and Economic Sciences Applied Research (IJBESAR), Democritus University of Thrace (DUTH), Kavala Campus, Greece, vol. 9(3), pages 34-42, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:tei:journl:v:9:y:2016:i:3:p:34-42
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ijbesar.af.duth.gr/docs/volume9_issue3/hospital_length_stay_nigeria.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://ijbesar.af.duth.gr/volume9_issue3.php
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David E. Sahn & David C. Stifel, 2003. "Urban--Rural Inequality in Living Standards in Africa," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 12(4), pages 564-597, December.
    2. Germano Mwabu & Martha Ainsworth & Andrew Nyamete, 1993. "Quality of Medical Care and Choice of Medical Treatment in Kenya: An Empirical Analysis," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 28(4), pages 838-862.
    3. Bolduc, Denis & Lacroix, Guy & Muller, Christophe, 1996. "The choice of medical providers in rural Benin: A comparison of discrete choice models," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 477-498, August.
    4. Mwabu, Germano M., 1986. "Health care decisions at the household level: Results of a rural health survey in Kenya," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 315-319, January.
    5. David McKenzie, 2005. "Measuring inequality with asset indicators," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 18(2), pages 229-260, June.
    6. Randall P. Elllis & D. Keith McInnes & Elizabeth H. Stephenson, 1994. "Inpatient and outpatient Health Care Demand in Cairo, Egypt," Boston University - Institute for Economic Development 38, Boston University, Institute for Economic Development.
    7. Randall P. Ellis & D. Keith McInnes & Elizabeth H. Stephenson, 1994. "Inpatient and outpatient health care demand in Cairo, Egypt," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 3(3), pages 183-200, May.
    8. Ssewanyana, Sarah & Nabyonga, Juliet O. & Kasirye, Ibrahim & Lawson, David, 2004. "Demand for Health Care Services in Uganda: Implications for Poverty Reduction," Research Series 150529, Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Anta TA DIAL & Moussa DIENG & Martine AUDIBERT & Jean-Yves LE HESRAN, 2014. "Déterminants de la demande de soins en milieu péri-urbain dans un contexte de subvention à Pikine, Sénégal," Working Papers 201415, CERDI.
    2. Moussa Dieng & Martine Audibert & Jean-Yves Le Hesran & Anta Ta Dial, 2015. "Déterminants de la demande de soins en milieu péri-urbain dans un contexte de subvention à Pikine, Sénégal," CERDI Working papers halshs-01027504, HAL.
    3. Trani, Jean-Francois & Bakhshi, Parul & Noor, Ayan A. & Lopez, Dominique & Mashkoor, Ashraf, 2010. "Poverty, vulnerability, and provision of healthcare in Afghanistan," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(11), pages 1745-1755, June.
    4. Charles Mulindabigwi Ruhara & Josue Mbonigaba, 2016. "The Role of Economic Factors in the Choice of Medical Providers in Rwanda," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 8(2), pages 65-78.
    5. Habtom, GebreMichael Kibreab & Ruys, Pieter, 2007. "The choice of a health care provider in Eritrea," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(1), pages 202-217, January.
    6. Magnus Lindelow, 2004. "The Utilization of Curative Health Care in Mozambique: Does Income Matter?," Development and Comp Systems 0409057, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Ardeshir Sepehri & Robert Chernomas, 2001. "Are user charges efficiency- and equity-enhancing? A critical review of economic literature with particular reference to experience from developing countries," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(2), pages 183-209.
    8. Jaume Puig & Marc Sáez & Esther Martínez Garcia, 1998. "Health care provider choice in the case of patient-initiated contacts. An extended version of discrete choice of model demand," Working Papers, Research Center on Health and Economics 308, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    9. Magnus Lindelow, 2003. "The Utilization of Curative Health Care in Mozambique: Does Income Matter?," Economics Series Working Papers WPS/2004-11, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    10. Kara Hanson & Winnie C. Yip & William Hsiao, 2004. "The impact of quality on the demand for outpatient services in Cyprus," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(12), pages 1167-1180, December.
    11. Sisira Sarma, 2009. "Demand for outpatient healthcare," Applied Health Economics and Health Policy, Springer, vol. 7(4), pages 265-277, December.
    12. Lindelow, Magnus, 2002. "Health care demand in rural Mozambique," FCND discussion papers 126, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    13. Magnus Lindelow, 2003. "Understanding spatial variation in the utilization of health services: does quality matter?," Economics Series Working Papers WPS/2004-12, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    14. Kasirye, Ibrahim & Ssewanyana, Sarah & Nabyonga, Juliet & Lawson, David, 2004. "Demand for health care services in Uganda: Implications for poverty reduction," MPRA Paper 8558, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Simon Appleton, 2000. "Education and health at the household level in sub-Saharan Africa," CID Working Papers 33, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    16. Christelle Grobler & Ian C. Stuart, 2007. "Health Care Provider Choice," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 75(2), pages 327-350, June.
    17. Leonard, Kenneth L., 2009. "The cost of imperfect agency in health care: Evidence from rural Cameroun," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(2), pages 282-291, March.
    18. Erlyana, Erlyana & Damrongplasit, Kannika Kampanya & Melnick, Glenn, 2011. "Expanding health insurance to increase health care utilization: Will it have different effects in rural vs. urban areas?," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(2), pages 273-281.
    19. Marisol Rodríguez & Alexandrina Stoyanova, 2004. "The effect of private insurance access on the choice of GP/specialist and public/private provider in Spain," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(7), pages 689-703, July.
    20. Dr B C Purohit, "undated". "Structural Adjustment and the Health Care Sector in India: some policy issues in financing," QEH Working Papers qehwps02, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Hospital Length of Stay; Zero-truncated Negative Binomial; Healthcare Reforms; GHS-Panel; Nigeria;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:tei:journl:v:9:y:2016:i:3:p:34-42. 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: Kostas Stergidis (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dbikagr.html .

    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.