HEALTHCARE FACILITIES MAPPING WITHIN ABUJA MUNICIPAL AREA COUNCIL, FCT – ABUJA

Abstract

This study analyzes the geospatial distribution of healthcare facilities in some wards within Abuja Municipal Area Council, so as to achieve the following objectives: identifying and mapping healthcare facilities in the study area, assessing the distribution and utilization patterns of healthcare facilities within the study area, creating a Database Management System. A handheld GPS (Garmin GPSMAP 62) was used to acquire coordinates of health facilities. Records of location, ownership and type of health facilities in the study area which constituted attribute data of the facilities were taken. Probability sampling of individuals was done during the administration of questionnaires and sample size was determined using the Krejcie and Morgan (1970) table. An existing map of the study area was georeferenced and digitized using ArcGIS 10.1 after which the coordinates and all other attribute data obtained were imported into the same software for further analysis. Maps showing health facilities within the Study area were produced, Buffer analysis was performed and the Nearest Neighborhood analysis was also carried out. Other analysis performed were SPSS analysis in which Logistic regression was carried out to help determine the utilization of the facilities, cross tabulation analysis was also performed to further analyze the questionnaires administered to respondents and finally, Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DECORANA or DCA) was performed to observe the relationship that existed in the dataset collected. A total number of 46 healthcare facilities were recorded in the study area of which 8 were Primary Health Care, 4 were Secondary Health Care, and 34 were private healthcare facilities. The buffer analysis of 4km performed showed that the health facilities were clustered and Karu Ward was the only ward well serviced with health facilities. A database containing all information on the health facilities recorded was also created to aid further manipulation, storage and easy retrieval of data via query operations. It is therefore recommended that the government should ensure that facilities provided should be in proportion to the population being served and also assist in training and recruiting more health workers to meet the health needs of the ever-increasing population.