IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/endesu/v20y2018i5d10.1007_s10668-017-9980-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Understanding the paradox of rising consumption of alternative medicine in Kenya

Author

Listed:
  • Maurice Ochieng’ Ombok

    (Maasai Mara University)

  • Maurice Juma Ogada

    (Taita Taveta University)

Abstract

Kenya has been expanding provision of healthcare services, taking health facilities closer to the people. While this would be expected to reduce dependence on complementary/alternative medicine, the consumption has continued to rise. This raises the question of whether alternative medicine is replacing conventional medicine or the two are jointly used to deal with diseases. Thus, this study sought to establish the relationship of the two remedies in household choice of healthcare and explored the determinants of such choices. The study used bivariate probit analysis on cross-sectional data. The study found that consumption of conventional medicine and alternative medicine was indeed interdependent. The two were, on average, substitutes although some groups still consumed them jointly. Gender, education and age of the household head, price of conventional medicine, distance to conventional medicine facilities and social networks were found to influence the decisions. Male household heads, price of conventional medicine and distance to conventional medical facilities had a positive relationship with the probability of using alternative remedies. Education and age of household head, and social capital were associated with lower likelihood of choosing alternative remedies. The results of this study have important ramifications for medical researchers, health policy makers and health insurance providers. For medical researchers, joint use of alternative and conventional medicines makes it important to understand the interactions between the two so as to avoid adverse reactions that may endanger the lives of patients. For the health policy makers, because patients have different preferences for healthcare services, it is useful to provide alternative medicine and conventional medicine in a joint and integrated health system for patients’ freedom of choice, and for safety and efficacy of treatment. Health insurance providers, on their part, need to explore the possibilities and modalities for bringing users of alternative medicine, and joint users of alternative and conventional medicines under their cover.

Suggested Citation

  • Maurice Ochieng’ Ombok & Maurice Juma Ogada, 2018. "Understanding the paradox of rising consumption of alternative medicine in Kenya," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 20(5), pages 2107-2117, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:20:y:2018:i:5:d:10.1007_s10668-017-9980-2
    DOI: 10.1007/s10668-017-9980-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-017-9980-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10668-017-9980-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yesuf, Mahmud & Köhlin, Gunnar, 2008. "Market Imperfections and Farm Technology Adoption Decisions: A Case Study from the Highlands of Ethiopia," RFF Working Paper Series dp-08-04-efd, Resources for the Future.
    2. Grossman, Michael, 1972. "On the Concept of Health Capital and the Demand for Health," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 80(2), pages 223-255, March-Apr.
    3. Germano Mwabu & Martha Ainsworth & Andrew Nyamete, 1993. "Quality of Medical Care and Choice of Medical Treatment in Kenya: An Empirical Analysis," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 28(4), pages 838-862.
    4. Anyinam, Charles, 1987. "Availability, accessibility, acceptability, and adaptibility: Four attributes of African ethno-medicine," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 25(7), pages 803-811, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Appleton, S., 2000. "Education and Health at the Household Level in Sub-Saharan Africa," Papers 33, Chicago - Graduate School of Business.
    2. Habtom, GebreMichael Kibreab & Ruys, Pieter, 2007. "The choice of a health care provider in Eritrea," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(1), pages 202-217, January.
    3. Chen, Fanglin & Hao, Xinyue & Chen, Zhongfei, 2021. "Can high-speed rail improve health and alleviate health inequality? Evidence from China," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 266-279.
    4. Anta TA DIAL & Moussa DIENG & Martine AUDIBERT & Jean-Yves LE HESRAN, 2014. "Déterminants de la demande de soins en milieu péri-urbain dans un contexte de subvention à Pikine, Sénégal," Working Papers 201415, CERDI.
    5. Magnus Lindelow, 2004. "The Utilization of Curative Health Care in Mozambique: Does Income Matter?," Development and Comp Systems 0409057, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Óscar D. Lourenço & Pedro L. Ferreira, 2005. "Utilization of public health centres in Portugal: effect of time costs and other determinants. Finite mixture models applied to truncated samples," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(9), pages 939-953, September.
    7. Adu Owusu Sarkodie, 2022. "The effect of the price of time on healthcare provider choice in Ghana," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-7, December.
    8. NDA, Koffi C. & AKA, BEDIA F., 2018. "Households’ Therapeutic Behavior: An Empirical Study For Cote D´Ivoire," Applied Econometrics and International Development, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 18(1), pages 105-120.
    9. Jaume Puig & Marc Sáez & Esther Martínez Garcia, 1998. "Health care provider choice in the case of patient-initiated contacts. An extended version of discrete choice of model demand," Working Papers, Research Center on Health and Economics 308, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    10. Moussa Dieng & Martine Audibert & Jean-Yves Le Hesran & Anta Ta Dial, 2015. "Déterminants de la demande de soins en milieu péri-urbain dans un contexte de subvention à Pikine, Sénégal," CERDI Working papers halshs-01027504, HAL.
    11. Magnus Lindelow, 2003. "The Utilization of Curative Health Care in Mozambique: Does Income Matter?," Economics Series Working Papers WPS/2004-11, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    12. Eric French & Elaine Kelly & Richard Cookson & Carol Propper & Miqdad Asaria & Rosalind Raine, 2016. "Socio‐Economic Inequalities in Health Care in England," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 37, pages 371-403, September.
    13. Rana Ejaz Ali Khan & Muhammad Ali Raza, 2017. "Utilization of Quality Source of Prenatal-Care in India: An Evidence from IDHS," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 131(3), pages 1163-1178, April.
    14. Anura Amarasinghe & Gerard D'Souza & Cheryl Brown & Tatiana Borisova, 2006. "A Spatial Analysis of Obesity in West Virginia," Working Papers Working Paper 2006-13, Regional Research Institute, West Virginia University.
    15. Kristina Burström & Magnus Johannesson & Finn Diderichsen, 2003. "The value of the change in health in Sweden 1980/81 to 1996/97," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(8), pages 637-654, August.
    16. Robert Kaestner, 1995. "The Effects of Cocaine and Marijuana Use on Marriage and Marital Stability," NBER Working Papers 5038, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Martin Fischer & Martin Karlsson & Therese Nilsson, 2013. "Effects of Compulsory Schooling on Mortality: Evidence from Sweden," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-23, August.
    18. Tansel, Aysit & Keskin, Halil Ibrahim, 2017. "Education Effects on Days Hospitalized and Days out of Work by Gender: Evidence from Turkey," IZA Discussion Papers 11210, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Hongliang Wang & Yiwen Yu, 2016. "Increasing health inequality in China: An empirical study with ordinal data," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 14(1), pages 41-61, March.
    20. Ning Xu & Chang’an Li, 2023. "Migration and Rural Sustainability: Relative Poverty Alleviation by Geographical Mobility in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-27, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:20:y:2018:i:5:d:10.1007_s10668-017-9980-2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.