Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

This paper investigates comprehensively the predictors of children’s utilization of healthcare services in Kenya including demographic characteristics of children and their households, financial well-being, and availability, accessibility, and affordability of healthcare services. The Andersen (1995) Behavioral Model of Health Services is used to identify the abovementioned factors that predict utilization of healthcare services commonly grouped into three categories: predisposing, enabling, and need factors. We use a mixed-methods approach to answer the research question. KIHBS 2015-16 and KDHS2014 surveys are used to identify the socio-economic factors associated with utilization of healthcare services using logistic regression analysis. These results are complemented with findings from fieldwork in Turkana, Kakamega, and Kitui during August 2016 including focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with beneficiaries - children and their mothers - and providers of healthcare services at different levels of provision. Our preliminary quantitative research findings show that the age of the child, religion, poverty status, and county of residence affect the decision to utilize healthcare services among those who suffered a disease. From a policy perspective, the findings suggest that in order to decrease health outcome inequalities, investments are necessary to make services available across all counties and that the services are provided free of charge for all children under five. Investigating the effect of geographical availability of healthcare services and their quality at different levels of service provision would be very useful in addressing inequalities in access to healthcare from a policy perspective.