Non-Price Determinants of Health Providers Use in Senegal

Individuals seeking health care in Senegal, face different options in terms of which type of health service to use (public, private or traditional). This article identifies the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics that influence the use of health care providers in Senegal using a conditional Logit model on 8,395 individuals from the second Senegalese Living Standards Survey (ESAM 2). Distance to the provider, type of illness, and length of illness are the main determinants of health providers’ use, but individual and household characteristics like location, education, and gender are also significant factors. Contrary to existing literature, I find that household size and household income are not influencing use of a given health care provider versus no care. Additionally, an individual’s odds of seeking care from traditional healers increase with the severity and length of the disease which is a surprising result