Abstract:
The Government of Tanzania has exempted the elderly from cost sharing in health
service delivery as it is stipulated in the National Ageing Policy and in the National
Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty in Tanzania. However, the majority
of the elderly do not get the services freely. The main objective of this study was to
assess factors influencing access of the elderly to free health services. The study was
conducted in Iringa and Makete Districts. A cross-sectional design was adopted in
the study. Quantitative data were collected using a structured questionnaire
involving 240 elderly. Qualitative data were collected through in-depth interviews,
focus group discussions, and key informant interviews. Quantitative data were
analysed using IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Statistics
software by computing descriptive statistics including frequencies, percentages,
averages, minimum and maximum values of individual variables. Qualitative data
were analysed through content analysis and categorised based on the research
objectives. The majority of the elderly had poor health status which was linked to
their decreased ability to perform activities for daily living. Their health statuses
were significantly influenced by their socio-economic characteristics (p ≤ 0.05).
The health services received by the elderly were of low quality as their expectations
on health services were higher than their perceptions of the same. The difference
between expectations and perceptions was statistically significant (p ≤ 0.01). The
health statuses of elderly had no significant association with their access to free
health services (p > 0.05). The most important predictors of access to free health
services by the elderly were awareness to free health services and income (p ≤
0.001), and age (p ≤ 0.01). The elderly were inadequately informed about their right to free health services and hence had negative attitude towards the free health
service delivery system. The health workers had negative attitude towards the
elderly; hence they were discriminative against the elderly in the latter's efforts to
get access to free health services. It is recommended that the government of
Tanzania; through the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender,
Elderly and Children; should evaluate the exemption process and develop
appropriate mechanisms, including creation of awareness of the services, to ensure
that the elderly receive free health services
