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.