Determinants of knowledge about health insurance among women in Uganda

Abstract

The objective of this study was to assess the factors that determine knowledge about health insurance among women in Uganda. It used secondary data from Uganda demographic and Health Surveys (UDHS) collected by Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS, 2016). Analysis was done using frequency distribution, chi-square and binary logistic regression to analyze the joint effect of the independent variables on knowledge about health insurance. In the findings, over a fifth of the respondents were aged between 15-19 (23.11%). Just over one third of the respondents were agricultural-self-employed (38.76%). Slightly over a half of the respondents attained primary education (58.86%). A considerate proportion of women were from rural areas (76.34%). Slightly over a fifth of the respondents had highest level of wealth status (21.85%). Furthermore, over a quarter of the respondents were married (31.41%). Finally, most of the respondents did not know about health insurance (77.72%). In the bivariate analysis, the variables selected for the multiple logistic regression were type of residence, education level, marital status, age and wealth status because their p-values were less than 0.05 (P<0.05). In the multivariate analysis, Women from rural areas had 11% reduced odds compared to women from urban areas to having knowledge about health insurance (OR=0.89). Women who attained primary level of education were 1.8 times more likely than those who did not attain to have knowledge about health insurance (OR=1.83). Women aged 25-29 were 1.2 times more likely than women aged 20-24 to have knowledge about health insurance (OR=1.21). Married women were 1.1 times more likely than women never in union to have knowledge about health insurance (OR=1.09). Women under second level of wealth status were 1.9 times more likely than women under lowest level to have knowledge about health insurance (OR=1.90). The results indicate need to boost the knowledge about health insurance among women in Uganda. To increase the awareness among women through sensitization and education on relevance of health insurance. The life insurance companies should come up with innovative tailor-made products with high risk cover, more return and low insurance premium to attract more number of customers and to achieve greater health insurance penetration.