Health services utilization in Makkah, Saudi Arabia

Health care services utilization is influenced by the morbidity level among the population, their demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, and their attitudes and perceptions regarding health, disease and medicine. The objective of this study is to analyze the utilization of health care services in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. A survey of 389 households was conducted in the four sectors of Makkah. The Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and the Student Newman-Kules (SNK) were used to examine the variation in the utilization of health services by the population of the different sectors. The Forward Stepwise Regression was also employed to identify the variables that significantly influence the utilization of health care services. This study shows that the Northern Sector of the city utilizes health services in general, and government hospitals and PHCC's in particular, at significantly higher rates. On the other hand, the Southern and the Central sectors seem to have lower utilization rates of these services. All private and traditional services, with the exception of clinics, are utilized at statistically similar rates by the population of the various sectors. The morbidity variables contribute most to the explained variance in the overall utilization and the utilization of government hospitals, especially by the population of the Northern Sector. Also, the utilization of private services as a whole, and the utilization of traditional services by the population of the city in general are largely explained by morbidity variables. The socioeconomic variables have the highest contribution to the explained variance of the overall utilization and the utilization of government hospitals by the households of the Southern Sector. Most of the explained variance in the utilization of PHCC's by the population of the Northern Sector and all the explained variance in the utilization of private clinics by the population of the Central Sector are predicted by the demographic and socioeconomic variables. Finally, the attitudinal and perceptual variables have highly contributed to the explained variance of the utilization of PHCC's and private facilities. Several aspects of health care services utilization by the population of Makkah are revealed by this study. Planning for an appropriate health care system in Makkah or other Saudi cities should take into consideration these aspects.