Assessment of the factors that affect the attitude towards uptake of health insurance among women of reproductive age in Uganda

Abstract

The objective of this study was to assess the factors affecting the attitude towards the uptake of health insurance among women of reproductive age in Uganda. Therefore, it aims to find out whether gender, place of residence, income level, employment status, religion, Age, Education level, marital status and others have a significant relationship on the uptake of health insurance among women of reproductive age in Uganda. It used primary data and was collected using goggle forms on a sample of 92 respondents from different places round Kampala. The analysis was done using frequency distribution, Pearson chi-square, and logistic regression. In the results, few of the women had health insurance with 25%. Over a half of the respondents were Christians with 54.3% followed by Muslims with 23.9%, followed by women with no religion. The minority were those who belonged to the traditional religion with 6.6%. Only 43.5% of the respondents had their highest education level as tertiary followed by those with primary level with 27.2% followed by secondary level with 18.5%. The variables that were selected for the third stage analysis were the income level, employment status, whether health insurance premiums were affordable, whether one owned any other insurance policy, whether health insurance would be useful in the next delivery, attitude towards health insurance, place of residence, whether one was aware of health insurance, religion, whether the respondent had health insurance and education level. This is because their p<0.1. In the third stage of analysis, women in urban areas were nine times more likely to take up health insurance than those residing in rural areas (OR=9.795). Another variable was having any other insurance policy. Women who owned any other insurance policy were thirteen times more likely to take up health insurance than those who did not own any other insurance policy (OR=13.21). Furthermore, there was a 96% lower likelihood for women who were self-employed to take up health insurance compared to those who were employed (OR=0.040). The findings indicate that there is need to sensitize women about the importance of health insurance such that they are motivated to buy it.