Analysis of Health Care Utilization in Côte d'Ivoire

Health constitutes a sufficiently solid entrance to reduce poverty and promote economic growth. Yet, in most African countries and particularly in Côte d’Ivoire, the populations’ state of health has seen a real deterioration over the last decade. This study seeks to explain this decline by determining the explanatory factors of recourse to health care providers. To this end, the multinomial logit model is used. The theoretical basis for this analysis is the maximization of a utility function to produce health. The data to test the study’s hypotheses came from the survey of the National Institute of Statistics, entitled Social Dimension of Structural Adjustment, carried out in April 1993. The results show that the education level of the household head, the household’s income, the price of medication, and the time to reach the health care provider (as a proxy for the distance to a health care provider) determine the choice for a specific health care provider. The level of education and the income positively influence this choice, while the cost of medication and the time to provider (time to reach the health provider) negatively influence the choice of health care provider.