An Analysis of Drivers of Health Care S e eking Sources Preferences in Selected Wards in Eastern Tanzania

Abstract

Access, effectiveness, and utilization of healthcare services can affect the attainment of good health, as healthcare services
have a role in promoting the population's health and the livelihoods of communities. Understanding factors that drive an individual's
preference in seeking health care from a particular source(s) is an important aspect that has a profound contribution in facilitating the
effective provision of health services. Though this aspect is generally known, very scanty information is available on what drives
individuals’ preferences for health care service sources under the One Health Approach in Tanzania. A cross-sectional study was conducted in Morogoro municipality and Mvomero district in Tanzania, inter alia, to analyse the determinants of individuals' health care service source preference. A structured questionnaire administered through a Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) electronic platform was used to collect data from 1440 respondents obtained through a multistage sampling procedure. IBM-SPSS v20 was used to analyse quantitative data. Binary logistic regression determined an individual's preference for sources to seek health care. The results revealed that 41.2% of the respondents preferred to seek health care services from informal sources and 58.8% from formal sources. Marital status (Exp B= 0.001, 95% CI, .000 to .010), ß=-6.946, p=0.000, service characteristics (Exp B= 1.678, ß=0.518, p=0.000), beliefs on the effectiveness of health services (Exp B= 5.268, ß=1.662 at p=0.001) had a significant influence on determining preference for a source of health care. It is recommended that health services should be improved from the formal health care sources since the majority of respondents had a preference for it.