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Health shocks, coping strategies and foregone healthcare among agricultural households in Kenya.
- Source :
- Global Public Health; Nov2017, Vol. 12 Issue 11, p1369-1390, 22p
- Publication Year :
- 2017
-
Abstract
- Risks are a central part of life for households in low-income countries and health shocks in particular are associated with poverty. Formal mechanisms protecting households against the financial consequences of shocks are largely absent, especially among poor rural households. Our aim is to identify the relative importance of health shocks and to explore factors associated with coping behaviour and foregone care. We use a cross-sectional survey among 1226 randomly selected agricultural households in Kenya. In our sample, illness and injury shocks dominate all other shocks in prevalence. Almost 2% of households incurred catastrophic health expenditure in the last year. Using a probit model we identified the main coping strategies associated with facing a health shock: (1) use savings, (2) sell assets and (3) ask for gifts or loans. One in five households forewent necessary care in the last 12 months. We conclude that health shocks pose a significant risk to households. Implementing pre-payment or saving mechanisms might help protect households against the financial consequences of ill health. Such mechanisms, however, should take into account the competing shocks that agricultural households face, making it almost impossible to reserve a share of their limited resources for the protection against health shocks only. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Subjects :
- FOOD
PSYCHOLOGICAL adaptation
AGRICULTURAL laborers
CATASTROPHIC illness
CHI-squared test
STATISTICAL correlation
ECONOMIC aspects of diseases
FOCUS groups
INTERVIEWING
MATHEMATICS
MEDICAL care costs
MULTIVARIATE analysis
POVERTY
PROBABILITY theory
QUESTIONNAIRES
REGRESSION analysis
RESEARCH funding
STATISTICAL sampling
SELF-evaluation
WOUNDS & injuries
FINANCIAL management
STATISTICAL power analysis
STATISTICAL significance
EFFECT sizes (Statistics)
CROSS-sectional method
DATA analysis software
DESCRIPTIVE statistics
ODDS ratio
DISEASE complications
THERAPEUTICS
ECONOMICS
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 17441692
- Volume :
- 12
- Issue :
- 11
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Global Public Health
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 125433804
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1080/17441692.2015.1130847