Barriers to Access to Healthcare Services among Physically Challenged Persons in Gem Sub County, Siaya County, Kenya

Abstract

Despite Kenya's commitment to equal access to healthcare for all by the year 2030, and the increase in the number of services provided, physically challenged persons still meet difficulty accessing health services for reasons attributable to different factors. This descriptive cross-sectional study identified existing person-related factors hindering access to healthcare services by the physically challenged persons in Gem Sub-county, Kenya. Stratified and systematic random sampling was used to select 108 physically disabled persons. Data was collected using semi-structured questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS (v23). Descriptive statistics were used to summarize social-demographic and physical attributes of the participants, and x² test was used to detect the relationship between relevant variables (α= 0.05). Out of 108 respondents, 65(male=33) had difficulty in accessing healthcare services. Participant gender, education, residential location and average monthly income, unemployment and environment inaccessibility to health facilities were found to significantly influence access of healthcare services (p<0.05). The study highlights the importance of adequate monthly funding, health insurance and measures to ensure the rights of PWPDs to healthcare services are put in place and implemented under legislation and policy. Further research is required to explore ways to remove barriers to access to healthcare.