Anne Case (Princeton University and Visiting Scientist, Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies) Alicia Menendez (University of Chicago and Visiting Scientist, Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies) Cally Ardington (University of Cape Town and Visiting Scientist, Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies)
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We examine patterns of health seeking behavior prior to death among 1282 individuals who lived in the Umkhanyakude District of Northern KwaZulu-Natal. Information on the health care choices of these individuals, who died between January 2003 and July 2004, was gathered after their deaths from their primary care-givers. We examine choices made concerning public and private medicine, western and traditional medicine, and non-prescribed self-medication. We find that virtually all adults who were ill prior to death sought treatment from a Western medical provider, visiting either a public clinic or a private doctor. In this district, which is predominantly poor, ninety percent of adults who sought treatment from a public clinic also visited a private doctor. Fifty percent also sought treatment from a traditional healer, suggesting that traditional medicine is seen as a complement to, rather than a substitute for, Western care. Better educated people who were ill for less than a month before dying were significantly more likely to visit a private doctor, while those least well educated were more likely to visit a traditional healer. Controlling for length of illness, better educated and wealthier people sought care from a greater range of providers, and spent significantly more on their treatment.
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Health and Wellbeing. in its series Working Papers with number
237.
Anne Case & Alicia Menendez & Cally Ardington, 2005.
"Health Seeking Behavior in Northern KwaZulu-Natal,"
Working Papers
165, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Research Program in Development Studies..
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