Transportation barriers to formal healthcare utilisation and associated factors among poor older people under a social protection programme in Ghana

Introduction: Social protection programmes such as the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme are meant to improve access to services including formal healthcare and enhance quality of life of beneficiaries. However, beneficiaries are still faced with various barriers to services such as formal healthcare. Objective: In this study, with the aid of socio-economic and demographic factors, we predict the likelihood of transportation barriers to formal healthcare utilisation among poor older people under the LEAP programme in Ghana. Results: The study finds that females are significantly more likely to encounter transportation barriers to formal healthcare utilisation compared with their male counterparts (AOR = 2.22; C1 = 0.869–5.673; P = 0.006). Also, we find that respondents aged 85 years or above are significantly more likely to encounter transportation barriers to formal healthcare utilisation than the other age groups (AOR = 1.66; C1 = 0.860–3.710; P = 0.003). Furthermore, we reveal that participants who receive a monthly income of GHS 201 or more are significantly less likely to encounter transportation barriers to formal healthcare utilisation (AOR = 0.784; CI = 0.313–1.962; P = 0.003). Implications and conclusion: The results suggest that gender-based development programmes (education and skills training) at the early stages of life would be needed to ensure economic empowerment, adequate preparation towards old age, and reduce transportation barriers to formal healthcare utilisation among poor older people especially the females. Based on the findings, we conclude that a genuine commitment on the part of social programme implementers to improve cash transfer amounts and ensure regular transfers is likely to lessen transportation barriers among the poor older people in formal healthcare utilisation.