The Determinants of health care demand amongst the Senoufo of the Côte d'Ivoire

Budgetary restrictions, and more generally, the lack of resources available in the health sector in Africa, have gradually led governments to undertake health care reforms, most notably by introducing user fees, as in the Côte d'Ivoire. But whilst it may be hoped that charging fees should lead to an improvement in the quality of services provided, health policy should not ignore what both users and those who do not use it expect of the health services. On a more general level it is important that the factors which determine the demand for health care are known. This is what has been analysed using a sample of the sicks from the Senoufo people in the Korogho region in the North of the Côte d'Ivoire. Every person who had experienced some ill-health during the four weeks preceeding the arrival of the researcher responded to a questionnaire which had been developed to record the history of the patient's. Another questionnaire specially developed for each farm holding of the sicks, enabled the collection of complementary variables needed such as information about the patient and about his family. A multinomial probit model was used to study access to health care (there were three options available: automedication, traditional medicine or treatment within the modern system), and to identify the variables which determined the probability levels of usage of each type of treatment option.