Transport and Access to Rural Health Centres in Ilorin East Local Government Area, Kwara State Nigeria

Abstract

The study examines the role of rural road transport in determining physical access to primary health centres in Ilorin East local Government Area of Kwara State, Nigeria. Data were collected from a sample of 207 rural households using structured questionnaire. In addition to the use of descriptive statistics, principal component analysis and stepwise multiple regression techniques were used to analyse the data. About 49% of the respondents were found to travel to health centres by foot while, 23% travelled by commercial motorcycle. The result further indicates that travel time to health facilities is generally low in the area as 55.6% of the sample spends less than 40 minutes to seek medical services. By jointly explaining 75.5% of the variance in access; distance, means of transport, road distance to Local Government Headquarter and level of income can be used to predict level of access to health centres in the area. It is suggested that access to rural health centres can be improved by improving rural transport services and introduction of mobile clinics to ensure that modern medical care is made available to the generality of the people.