Abstract:
Introduction: In Ethiopia, utilization of health services in fee waiver beneficiaries remains low. To
ensure appropriate health care use, we need to understand factors affecting health care use, and the
reasons for low levels of utilization among fee waiver beneficiaries in our community.
Objective: The aim of this study was to assess utilization of health services and its associated factors
among fee waiver beneficiaries in Dawnt district, 2020.
Methods: A community-based cross-sectional quantitative study was conducted from March 01-
30/2020.The data were collected using a structured interviewer administered questionnaire.
Participants were selected using simple random sampling technique. Data was entered in to Epi data
version 4.6 and exported to SPSS version 20 for analysis. Descriptive statistics was used to
summarize the data and Bi-variable and multivariable logistic regression was used to examine the
relationship between outcome variable and independent variables. Adjusted odd ratio, P value<0.05with 95% confidence interval was used to show the level of significance.
Results: The overall health service utilization among fee waiver beneficiaries for the last 12 months
was 60.98% (95%CI: 56.4-64.4%). Being from urban resident( AOR=3.49, 95%CI :1.39-8.76),
family size from three to five and greater five (AOR= 5.37, 95%CI :2.43-11.9) and (AOR=10.96
95%CI :3.71-32.37) respectively, very poor perceived health status (AOR= 9.69, 95%CI :1.42-
66.16), claimed to have chronic disease (AOR=3.05 ,95%CI :1.01-9.19) and medium, far and very
far perceived distance ( AOR= 0.08 ,95%CI : 0.64-0.16), (AOR=0.013 ,95%CI :0.005-0.04) and
(AOR= 0.014 ,95%CI : 0.002-0.13) respectively were found to be significantly associated with
utilization of health care.
Conclusions recommendations: The finding showed that utilization level of health service was
relatively low. Thus, addressing the significant factors would be of great value to improve health
service utilization among fee waiver beneficiaries. Improving physical accessibility of health
services and availability of necessary health services will possibly result in a better utilization of
healthcare. In addition, health workers should play active role in raising the awareness of the public
about the presence of and the mechanisms for properly utilizing these measures.
