Usmanu Danfodiyo University Researcher Details Research in Health Insurance (Assessment of Health Seeking Behaviour of the Elderly in a Rural Community of Sokoto State, Nigeria): Health Insurance

Insurance Daily News

2024 MAR 25 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Investigators discuss new findings in health insurance. According to news originating from Usmanu Danfodiyo University by NewsRx editors, the research stated, “The ageing populations of Nigeria has increased from 4.61% in 2020 to 4.78 % in 2022 and are vulnerable to long term diseases of insidious onset such as cardiovascular illness, Cerebrovascular accident (CVA), cancers, diabetes, and musculoskeletal disease. This study was carried out to assess the health problems of the elderly ad their health seeking behaviours.”

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Usmanu Danfodiyo University: “This was cross-sectional descriptive study carried out amongst elderly persons aged 60 years and above in Wamakko Local Government Area of Sokoto state. Using a combination of multistage and systematic sampling methods, a total of 347 respondents were recruited into the study. A set of pretested questionnaire was used for data collection after obtaining ethical approval and informed consent from study subjects. Less than half of the respondents (47.8%) had appropriate health seeking practices by visiting health facilities during spells of illness. The commonest illness experienced by the elderly in this community was musculoskeletal diseases followed by hypertension and visual problems. A total of 95.7% of the respondents were not covered with any form of health insurance scheme. Predictors of health seeking behavior included duration of illness more than ten years and belonging to upper socio-economic class.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Very few of the elderly in this community had appropriate health seeking behavior with most of them not covered by any health insurance. There is the need to establish the community based health insurance scheme and bring on board all elderly persons so as to minimize out of pocket expenses by the aged.”

For more information on this research see: Assessment of Health Seeking Behaviour of the Elderly in a Rural Community of Sokoto State, Nigeria. Central African Journal of Public Health, 2024,10(1). (Central African Journal of Public Health - http://www.angleorthodontist.org/anglonline/?request=index-html). The publisher for Central African Journal of Public Health is Science Publishing Group.

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cajph.20241001.15.

Our news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Oche Mansur Oche, Department of Community Health, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Nigeria. Additional authors for this research include Ahunna Zainab Ezenwoko, Abdulaziz Mohammad Danmadami, Nafisa Shuaibu Ahmadu, Abdulwahab Salihu, Usman Muhammad.