PERCEIVED AVAILABILITY AND UTILIZATION OF HEALTHCARE SERVICES IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS

 The purpose of this study was to evaluate the availability and utilization of healthcare services by demographic characteristics in tertiary institutions of Nasarawa state. To achieve this purpose, one thousand (1000) subjects, comprising six hundred (600) students, two hundred (200) academic and non academic staff and two hundred (200) healthcare workers and administrators were randomly selected from six tertiary institutions of Nasarawa state. Two sets of questionnaires (one set for all respondents and another set for healthcare workers and administrators) on availability and utilization of healthcare services were prepared and validated for content and face validity by juriors both within and outside the Faculty of Education, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

This was then administered on the respondents. Data collected for the study was analyzed, using descriptive statistics of frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation(SD) and analysis of variance (ANOVA). All items were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The following are the findings of this study: (a) Availability and utilization of healthcare services in tertiary institutions in Nasarawa state were not adequate. (b) The respondents income level significantly affects their perception of availability and utilization of healthcare services (c) Non utilization of the healthcare services was as a result of certain factors which include; high cost of drugs and services offered, the healthcare system its and the attitude of the healthcare workers. The demographic characteristics of the respondents also had effects on the perception of the respondents on the various variables of healthcare services in tertiary institutions in Nasarawa state. On the basis of the findings, the following recommendations were made: Healthcare services should be expanded to take care of the increasing number of recipients in the tertiary institutions in Nasarawa state. There should be public enlightenment by the management of the various tertiary institutions to sensitize both staff and students on the available healthcare services so that they can be properly utilized