National Health Insurance Scheme Adoption and Diffusion Theory among Healthcare Consumers in Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

All countries face challenges in expanding her healthcare coverage. NHIS was introduced as an alternative source of funding to achieve universal health coverage. This study examined the adoption of NHIS among healthcare consumers, determined the attributes and joint relationship between attributes and attitudes of healthcare consumers in Oyo State. The researcher asked to what extent the attributes of diffusion of innovation as a whole jointly affect the attitudes of healthcare consumers. The hypothesis formulated that diffusion attributes do not jointly predict consumer's attitudes towards adoption of NHIS in Oyo State. Simple random sampling technique was adopted to have a proportional representation of 1527 respondents from the population of 45,000 employees of federal agencies and a private company. Data generated were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics analysis at 0.05 significant levels. Findings revealed that the hypothesis jointly predict healthcare consumers attitude (F _(5,391) = 39339.954; R = .996, R² = .992, Adj. R² = .992; P < .05). The study concluded that the availability of these five attributes interactions and combinations speed up the innovation-diffusion process of NHIS in Oyo State. It is recommended that healthcare consumers' lifestyles, values and other compatibility attributes should be strongly used to motivate and accelerate the adoption of NHIS in Oyo State, Nigeria.