Health services demand: A Study in Erzurum

The sector of health services is a sector with a high potential of improvement. Given that every individual is likely to come across health services and that the resources shared for health services constitute a high rate of the resources shared for social welfare and since it is a sector with high externalities, it is of great importance to research the demand for this sector. The aim of this study, in line with the importance of this sector, is to determine the factors affecting the demand for health services. For this purpose, we estimate a logit model of demand for health services with SPSS and LIMDEP package softwares using the survey data. Our analysis suggests that the probability of the consumers demand for health services is positively related to the income, age and the number of the individuals in a family. It is also found that the average of the group specific variables, i.e. the economic factors, the attitudes and behaviors of the medical officials and the physical environments of the hospitals are significantly different from the general average in statistical terms at 0.05 level of significance.