Healthcare Accessibility and Affordability Measures among Older Persons in Rural Nigeria

Chizoba Amara Frances¹*, Adione Juliet Obioma², Chidera Okika-Chizoba³, Olasunkanmi Faith⁴, Lisa Foster Dikas⁵, Adogu Prosper⁶, Standly Nickson⁷ and Lucy K Ukachukwu⁸

¹Mission to Elderlies Foundation, Nigeria
²Somtomira Chemical and Pharmaceutical Company, Nigeria
³Federal Medical Center, Onitsha, Nigeria
⁴New York University, United States
⁵Greenacre Elder Home Health Foundation, Texas, United States
⁶Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria
⁷Univeristy of Central Nicaragua, Nicaragua
⁸Central State Hospital Virginia, United States

*Corresponding Author: Chizoba Amara Frances, Mission to Elderlies Foundation, Nigeria.

Email: missiontoelderlies@gmail.com Website: www.missiontoelderliesfoundation.org Research gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Amara-Chizoba.

Received: October 10, 2024; Published: January 29, 2025

Abstract

Background: There is surge in population aging in African countries like Nigeria. Chronic and co-morbid conditions are prevalent among older persons leading to increasing need and cost of healthcare. These can result to low levels of accessibility and affordability of healthcare among older persons. We aimed to measure healthcare accessibility and affordability among older persons.

Method: Study was conducted in Ukpo, Anambra State Nigeria from 2021-2022, adapting an interviewer-guided questionnaire from previous similar studies. A convenient sampling method was used to interview consenting older persons with reported age of ≥60 years. Data was analyzed using a frequency distribution and compared across demographic characteristics using SPSS21.0.

Result: There were 424 participants with mean age of 68 years and 66% (280/424) female. 45.3% (193/424) has no education and 35.5% (150/424) has no occupation. Though majority access healthcare at government hospitals (43.9% (186)), there is low level of accessibility of healthcare (mean scores of 34.25 ± 16.35) among them. Highest reasons for low level of access to healthcare were ‘not being aware of importance’ (33.2%) and ‘cost’ (33.2%). There are low levels of affordability of healthcare with mean scores of 44.4 ± 27.5, which was significantly associated with earning; where highest earners are more likely to afford healthcare (67.38 (±26.08)). To improve accessibility and affordability of healthcare, older persons recommended; provision of healthcare materials (253); support for medication (235); provision of financial support (217); and enrolment into Health Insurance (147).

Conclusion: There’s low accessibility and affordability of healthcare among older persons in Nigeria. We recommend public health interventions to improve accessibility and affordability of healthcare among this growing demographic.

 Keywords: Population; Healthcare; Nigeria

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Citation

Citation: Chizoba Amara Frances., et al. “Healthcare Accessibility and Affordability Measures among Older Persons in Rural Nigeria”.Acta Scientific Medical Sciences 9.2 (2025): 143-154.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2025 Chizoba Amara Frances., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.