Determinants of conventional health service utilization among pastoralists in northeast Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Health service utilization pattern among pastoralists in Ethiopia is not well documented. Available data
are very few and mostly institution based.
Objective: To assess the determinants of conventional health care utilization among pastoralist communities in
northeast Ethiopia.
Methods: The study employed a cross-sectional household survey conducted using structured questionnaires
administered among 276 mobile and 262 settled subjects within the pastoral area. In addition, reviews of outpatient
and inpatient records for the previous year at the local health facilities, as well as focus group discussions among the
study communities were conducted to supplement the household survey data.
Results: Analysis of the collected data revealed steep distance decay in level of health service utilization, in addition
to statistically significant difference in the service utilization between the settled and the mobile pastoralist
communities (the odd ratio and 95% CI for utilizing health services of settlers over mobile ones were 1.38
(1.138,1.667) with P value <0.01.
Conclusions: The findings show very low health coverage and low utilization of services among mobile pastoralists
in Ethiopia.

The Ethiopian Journal of Health Development Vol. 21 (2) 2007: pp. 142-147