Health Care Utilisation and Internal Migration in Rural and Urban South Africa

Carren Ginsburg, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Collinson Mark, University of the Witwatersrand
Francesc Gomez-Olive, Harvard University
Mark Gross, Brown University
Sadson Harawa, University of the Witwatersrand
Mark Lurie, Brown University
Keith Mukondwa, University of the Witwatersrand
Rebecca Wang, Brown University
Stephen Tollman, University of the Witwatersrand
Michael J. White, Brown University

In South Africa, geographic mobility is high as people engage in both permanent resettlement, and temporary movement. Such mobility may compromise health care access and utilisation. The objective of this paper is to explore health care utilisation and its determinants in a cohort of internal migrants and permanent residents originating from the Agincourt study site in South Africa’s rural northeast. A 5-year cohort study of 3800 individuals aged 18-40 commenced in 2017. Data have been collected from 1886 Agincourt residents and 1217 temporary, mostly urban-based migrants, and are analysed using descriptive statistics and logistic regression models. Results suggest that health service utilisation may differ by migrant status and gender. Participants residing in Agincourt are significantly more likely to have accessed health services in the preceding year as compared with temporary migrants, with females being more likely than males to have utilised health services.