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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Selecting therapies in Benin: making choices between informal, formal, private and public health services |
Author: | Klein, Thamar |
Year: | 2007 |
Periodical: | Afrika Spectrum |
Volume: | 42 |
Issue: | 3 |
Pages: | 461-481 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Benin |
Subjects: | health care access to health care |
Abstract: | This paper addresses a distinctive feature in Benin's health care system. Even though the latest figures state that 83 percent of the population have access to governmental health facilities, only 36 percent of the population make use of them. Thus governmental health facilities are extremely under-utilized. Where does this rejecting attitude come from and what kinds of health institutions are used instead? The present study explores this peculiarity and analyses the criteria for therapeutic itineraries in central Benin. The queried criteria included the distance between home and the facility's location, queuing time, opening hours, treatment costs, reputation of the institution concerning the treatment available, the facility's equipment, reception (politeness), language spoken by staff/practitioner, privacy, comfort and sex of staff/practitioner. A gendered focus shifts the evidence from 'the' Beninese population to gendered perspectives of male and female residents. It appears that the resistance to governmental health care is to a large extent linked to staff behaviour towards patients, their language skills, privacy issues and queuing time. The findings are based on 22 months of qualitative fieldwork between 2002 and 2005, and a large quantitative database obtained from 839 participants in central Benin. Bibliogr., notes, sum. in English, German and French. [Journal abstract] |