Self-reported health and medical care-seeking behaviour of uninsured Jamaicans

BACKGROUND: On examination of the literature in Latin America and the Caribbean, and in particular Jamaica, no study could be found that investigated the health and health care-seeking behaviour of uninsured people. This study bridges the gap in the literature by evaluating uninsured Jamaicans’ medical care-seeking behaviour and good health status. MATERIAL & METHOD: The study extracted a sample of 5,203 uninsured respondents 15 years and older from a national probability cross-sectional survey of 6,782 Jamaicans. Descriptive statistics were used to provide background information on the sample; cross-tabulations evaluated bivariate analyses, and logistic regression was used to model health and medical care-seeking behaviour. RESULTS: Good health of uninsured Jamaicans is correlated -reported biological condition (OR =0.114, 95% CI = 0.090 -0 .145) followed by age (OR =0.952, 95% CI = 0.946- 0.959); gender (OR = 1.501, 95% CI = 1.221–1.845); consumption (OR = 1.000, 95% CI = 1.000–1.000); social class (upper class OR = 0.563, 95% CI = 0.357–0.888); education (secondary and above OR = 0.622, 95%CI = 0.402–0.963), and area of residence (other towns OR = 1.351, 95% CI = 1.026–1.778). Medical care-seeking behaviour is associated with age (OR = 1.020, 95% CI = 1.006 – 1.033); poor health status (OR = 2.303, 95% CI = 1.533–3.461), and marital status (married OR = 0.518, 95% CI = 0.325–0.824). CONCLUSION: The findings are far reaching and provide an understanding of the uninsured, and the information can be used to aid public health intervention and education programmes.