Utilization of Primary Health Care Services in Jaba Local Government Area of Kaduna State Nigeria.

Background: Primary health care was designed to provide accessible health care for all. However, most primary health care facilities are in various states of disrepair, catering for less than 20% of potential patients in the population. This study was designed to investigate the utilisation of primary health care services in Jaba Local Government Area of Kaduna State Nigeria.

Methods: The study employed a cross-sectional study design conducted among 383 respondents utilising simple random sampling techniques. A pretested semi-structured questionnaire was administered to obtain information from respondents, while descriptive statistics was used to analyse the data.

Results: The results show that almost all of the respondents, 333(97.90%), were aware of the existence of primary health care services in their community. Furthermore, the majority of the respondents, 304(89.40%), utilized primary health care services while 293(86.20%) and 212(62.40%) were satisfied with the amount of charges for services and the supply of drugs respectively. According to the respondent, weak services in primary health care includes; personal hygiene and nutritional education, management of chronic diseases and cancer screening. Factors that influence the utilization of primary health care services according to the respondents were availability of trained personnel (AOR=1.828 95% CI=0.410-1.672), attitude of staffs (AOR=1.114 95% CI=0.527-2.355), waiting times (AOR=1.110 95% CI=0.584-2.224) and availability of diagnostic services (AOR=0.951 95% CI=0.472-1.918).

Conclusion: The study highlighted the weaknesses in some of the services offered at the various primary health centres and the factors which can hinder the residents from patronizing primary health care services.