Health Care, Care Provider and Client Satisfaction: Transforming Health Care Delivery System for Improved Health Care Seeking Behaviour

Francisca Chika Anyanwu, Sylvester Reuben Okeke 
(Department of Human Kinetics and Health Education, University of Ibadan, Nigeria)

Abstract: Health care seeking behaviour is central to the health status of individuals and groups in any society. All nations of the world rely on its human capital to drive national developmental effort. Societal growth and development cannot be guaranteed if the human resources needed to drive developmental effort are not operating at their zest. Seeking health care is greatly influenced by factors at the individual and the health care delivery system levels. This study investigated the influence of quality of health care, cost and convenience on the health care seeking behaviour of undergraduates in the University of Ibadan. The study employed the descriptive survey research design and simple random sampling technique was used to select 1122 accommodated undergraduates as respondents. Data were collected using a self developed and validated questionnaire which yielded a reliability index of 0.78 on the Cronbach alpha scale. Collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics of frequency counts and percentages as well as inferential statistics of simple and multiple regressions at 0.05 alpha level. Findings indicated that quality of care, cost and convenience significantly influenced health seeking behaviour. Transformation of the health care delivery system to improve on the quality of care as well as make care accessible through affordability and convenience was recommended.

Key words: health care seeking, cost of care, quality of care, development, transformation