Attitudes of Nigerian physicians toward a national health service

Joseph C. Umeh, Robert A. Freeman, Dowey D. Garner and David E. Blevins

Social Science & Medicine, 1986, vol. 23, issue 7, 701-708

Abstract: Despite efforts to improve health services in Nigeria, considerable problems in distribution and access persist. At present, the health care system in Nigeria is organized and financed at the states' level rather than at the national level. A severe maldistribution of resources exists, as does a lack of coordication among states. An alternative system, albeit expensive, is a National Health Service (NHS). The purpose of this research is to quantify physicians' attitudes towards the concept of NHS. Although physicians in Nigeria are mandated to provide government-funded support, a substantial private practice thrives. Accordingly, physicians' attitudes that may be transferred into behavior are a major determinate of a potential NHS' long term success. In summary, Hausa physicians from the north tended to be more favorable to NHS than did others. Also, younger physicians and those who believed Nigeria's present system to be inadequate favored NHS. There was no association between a physician's gender, locus of medical education, and source of support for medication education and attitude. Finally, physicians in private practice and those in urban areas held more negative attitudes. In spite of Nigeria's present difficulties, a NHS may become a viable alternative. At this point, the overall concept is not opposed by physicians.

Date: 1986
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0277-9536(86)90118-8
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:23:y:1986:i:7:p:701-708

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().