Physical health facilities in Nigeria's sub-national regions: Geodemographic and spatial analyses of health institutions in Nigeria's 36 states and federal capital territory

Abstract

This paper reports results of geodemographic-spatial analyses of physical health-care facilities in Nigeria's 36 states and federal capital. Apart from facilitating understanding of the interaction between health facilities and population sizes and their characteristics in the states, the geodemographic-spatial analyses proved useful in ranking shares of health facilities in Nigeria's states/territory. The findings show distributions (per capita shares) of various health-care facilities in the following states: highest shares of public (primary and secondary) health facilities and fair share of tertiary facilities in Kogi; lowest per capita shares of public and private primary health care facilities in Ebonyi; highest per capita share of private health facilities in Nasarawa (primary), Anambra (secondary) and Oyo (tertiary); highest total private health facilities of all levels due to the large number of its private primary health facilities in Nasarawa. The results show how the policies of governments and private organizations providing health services responded to health needs of state populations and highlight areas requiring further research. The policy implications of the study include the need to apply geodemographic and spatial analyses as part of the criteria for determining policy for providing or allocating health facilities in the states/territory. © 2012 Nicolaus Copernicus University Press. All rights reserved.