IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/62514.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Effects of Loan Amounts on Health Care Utilization in Ghana

Author

Listed:
  • Ekow Asmah, Emmanuel
  • Orkoh, Emmanuel

Abstract

Utilization of health care services - both preventive and curative, is among the myriad of important determinants of health and remains an issue of significant policy concern and focus in developing countries. Despite the importance of health care utilization, there is evidence to confirm that many people in Ghana go without health care from which they could benefit greatly. This disturbing, yet preventable, state of affairs causes’ untold suffering and, given its wide scale, presents a major obstacle to the development process. A range of socioeconomic, demographic, and public health related factors work together to influence household health utilization but the extent to which access to formal and informal credit plays in the Ghanaian context has not been addressed in the empirical literature. Using recently released Ghana Household Living Standard Survey round six (GLSS, 6) in 2012/2013, this study examines the extent to which an individual’s relative control over household resources, gauged by loan amounts influence health care utilization. The results, based on logistic and multinomial regression model estimation, demonstrate that a one percent increase in the amount of credit accessed from a financial institution is associated with 0.611 probability that an individual will consult a health practitioner when ill. Other variables that significantly predict the tendency that a respondent will consult a health practitioner when suffering any infirmity include income of the household, insurance status of the individual, place of residence and household size. We also find that Individuals in different socio-economic strata (region, rural/urban) face different risks with health care utilization. Policies aimed at making credit available to individuals and households can make an important contribution to health care utilization in Ghana. Moving forward, health programs and interventions should be embedded in financial services and they need to be tailored to particular socio-economic groups.

Suggested Citation

  • Ekow Asmah, Emmanuel & Orkoh, Emmanuel, 2015. "The Effects of Loan Amounts on Health Care Utilization in Ghana," MPRA Paper 62514, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:62514
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/62514/1/MPRA_paper_62514.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hausman, Jerry & McFadden, Daniel, 1984. "Specification Tests for the Multinomial Logit Model," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(5), pages 1219-1240, September.
    2. Brigit Obrist & Nelly Iteba & Christian Lengeler & Ahmed Makemba & Christopher Mshana & Rose Nathan & Sandra Alba & Angel Dillip & Manuel W Hetzel & Iddy Mayumana & Alexander Schulze & Hassan Mshinda, 2007. "Access to Health Care in Contexts of Livelihood Insecurity: A Framework for Analysis and Action," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 4(10), pages 1-5, October.
    3. Eric Arthur, 2012. "Wealth and antenatal care use: implications for maternal health care utilisation in Ghana," Health Economics Review, Springer, vol. 2(1), pages 1-8, December.
    4. Nkechi Owoo & Monica Lambon-Quayefio, 2013. "National health insurance, social influence and antenatal care use in Ghana," Health Economics Review, Springer, vol. 3(1), pages 1-12, December.
    5. Gertler, Paul & Locay, Luis & Sanderson, Warren, 1987. "Are user fees regressive? : The welfare implications of health care financing proposals in Peru," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1-2), pages 67-88.
    6. Grossman, Michael, 1972. "On the Concept of Health Capital and the Demand for Health," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 80(2), pages 223-255, March-Apr.
    7. A. J. Culyer & J. P. Newhouse (ed.), 2000. "Handbook of Health Economics," Handbook of Health Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 1.
    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. 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.
    2. Michael Grossman, 2016. "‘A Theory of the Allocation of Time’ Turns Fifty: Its Impact on the Field of Health Economics," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(1), pages 3-7, January.
    3. Michael Grossman, 2006. "Household Production and Health," Springer Books, in: Shoshana Grossbard (ed.), Jacob Mincer A Pioneer of Modern Labor Economics, chapter 13, pages 161-172, Springer.
    4. Rana Ejaz Ali Khan & Muhammad Ali Raza, 2016. "Utilization of prenatal-care in India: an evidence from IDHS," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 18(1), pages 175-201, October.
    5. Hengjin Dong & Adjima Gbangou & Manuela Allegri & Subhash Pokhrel & Rainer Sauerborn, 2008. "The differences in characteristics between health-care users and non-users: implication for introducing community-based health insurance in Burkina Faso," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 9(1), pages 41-50, February.
    6. Lindelow, Magnus, 2002. "Health care demand in rural Mozambique," FCND discussion papers 126, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    7. Carl Lyttkens, 2009. "Why the econometrician is in good spirits: a workshop through the looking glass," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 10(3), pages 239-242, July.
    8. Hernández-Quevedo, Cristina & Jones, Andrew M. & Rice, Nigel, 2008. "Persistence in health limitations: A European comparative analysis," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 1472-1488, December.
    9. Maite Blázquez Cuesta & Elena Cottini & Herrarte, A. (Ainhoa), 2012. "GINI DP 39: Socioeconomic Gradient in Health: How Important is Material Deprivation?," GINI Discussion Papers 39, AIAS, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies.
    10. Thang Dang, 2018. "Do the more educated utilize more health care services? Evidence from Vietnam using a regression discontinuity design," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 277-299, September.
    11. Shao-Hsun Keng & Sheng-Jang Sheu, 2013. "The effect of stimulants and their combined use with cigarettes on mortality: the case of betel quid," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 14(4), pages 677-695, August.
    12. Bolin, Kristian & Lindgren, Björn, 2014. "Non-monotonic health behaviours - implications for individual health-related behaviour in a demand-for-health framework," Working Papers in Economics 588, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    13. Hendrik P. van Dalen, 2006. "When Health Care Insurance does not make a Difference – The Case of Health Care ‘Made in China’," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 06-091/1, Tinbergen Institute.
    14. Bolin, Kristian & Caputo, Michael R., 2020. "Consumption and investment demand when health evolves stochastically," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    15. Drydakis, Nick, 2015. "The effect of unemployment on self-reported health and mental health in Greece from 2008 to 2013: A longitudinal study before and during the financial crisis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 43-51.
    16. Udo Schneider & Jürgen Zerth, 2011. "Improving Prevention Compliance through Appropriate Incentives: Theoretical Modelling and Empirical Evidence," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 147(I), pages 71-106, March.
    17. Yong Kang Cheah & Mohd Azahadi & Siew Nooi Phang & Noor Hazilah, 2017. "The Income and Demographic Determinants of Physical Activity Intensity: Evidence from a Developing Country," Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 11(3), pages 348-364, August.
    18. 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.
    19. Kuo-Liang Chang & George Langelett & Andrew Waugh, 2011. "Health, Health Insurance, and Decision to Exit from Farming," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 356-372, June.
    20. BARONE, Adriana & NESE, Annamaria, 2017. "Investment in Education, Obesity and Health Behaviours," CELPE Discussion Papers 146, CELPE - CEnter for Labor and Political Economics, University of Salerno, Italy.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Loan amount; Health care utilization; Multinomial logit;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:pra:mprapa:62514. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.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.