Rural Women's Access to Essential Drugs: An Evaluation of PHC Service Provision in Southeast Nigeria

This study assessed rural women’s access to the provision of essential drugs by Primary Health Care in South-East Nigeria. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. A sample of 395 respondents drawn from a population of 34, 859 rural women in the South-East was used for the study. The instrument for data collection was a 14-item questionnaire validated by two experts. Cronbach Alpha statistic was used to determine the internal consistency of the instrument which yielded 0.87 coefficients. Four briefed research assistants helped in the administration and collection of the instrument. Mean, standard Deviation and Simple percentages were used to answer the research questions while t-test statistics was used to test the null hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The findings showed that rural women in the South-East have limited access to the provision of essential drugs by Primary Health Care due to high cost and unavailability of drugs. There was no significant difference between the mean ratings of young and middle-aged rural women on the challenges they face in accessing essential drugs from PHC facilities. The study therefore recommended among others the subsidization of drugs and stocking of PHC facilities with essential drugs to enable them live healthier lifestyles.