ABSTRACT

This study assessed rural households’ utilization of  primary health care facilities in Ohafia agricultural zone of Abia State, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to describe selected socio-economic characteristics of respondents; assess rural households perception about primary health care facilities; determine extent of rural households participation in primary health care facilities, among others. A multistage sampling procedure was employed in the selection of 180 respondents as sample size. Primary data were collected with the use of structured interview schedule and analyzed with both descriptive and inferential statistical tools. The result of the study revealed that majority of the respondents (93.89%) were males, middle aged with mean age of 30.74 years. Majority (89.44%) were married and on the average had household size of 4 persons. It was also observed that the respondents had 5.25 years as mean years of schooling with mean distance of 3.31 kilometres to the nearest PHC facility. The result also showed that respondents had positive perception about primary health care facilities (Grand mean = 2.93), their participation was low (Grand mean = 1.94), recorded high utilization (Grand mean = 2.09) of primary health care services. The results show weak financial position of rural households (x = 3.16), lack of awareness and enlightenment (x 3.09),inflexibility of PHC programmes to adapt to community circumstance (x=3.08), among others were perceived constraints militating against rural households participation in PHC facilities implementation activities in the study area. It was also observed that poor households income (x=3.11), high cost of services (x=3.09), absence of qualified doctors and nurses (x=3.09), among others were perceived constraints militating against their utilization of PHC services.  The H01 was rejected (F-value = 663.831*** at P<0.05) with R2 = 0.958 which implies that 95.8% of the total variation in the dependent variables was accounted for by the explanatory variables. Meaning that socio-economic characteristics of respondents have significant relationship with utilization of PHC services in the study area. The test of no significant relationship between participation and utilization (Ho2) was rejected as the F-value was 404.257*** at P<0.05 which shows the overall significance of the regression line and coefficient of determination (R2) value of 0.921 which implies that 92.1% of the total variation in the dependent variable was accounted for by the explanatory variables. It was concluded that participation of respondent at the stages of establishment of PHC facilities enhances utilization of PHC services. It is recommended that intended benefiting rural communities should be included in the initiation stage of primary health facility as to promote participation and utilization of PHC facility