Date Thesis Awarded

4-2019

Access Type

Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only

Degree Name

Bachelors of Science (BS)

Department

Interdisciplinary Studies

Advisor

Dan Runfola

Committee Members

Dan Runfola

Carrie Dolan

Camilla Buchanan

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to examine the Kenyan health workforce and cross-cultural perceptions of four key factors related to health care access in Kenya on a sub-national county level. These factors are government health funding per capita, quantity of health professionals per person, number of health facilities per person, and average travel time to health facilities. The perceptions of different survey populations, well-educated Kenyan citizens and American professionals, were used to quantify the weight of importance for each factor. The resulting analysis exemplifies the similarities and variations in perceptions on influencing factors in Kenyan healthcare delivery. This is prompted by an effort to quantify and evaluate the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 3.C, "Substantially increase health financing and the recruitment, development, training and retention of the health workforce in developing countries, especially in least developed countries and small island developing States" (UN General Assembly, 2015). Results of the analysis, utilizing survey research methodology, rasterized drive-time analysis, and the Analytical Hierarchy Process among other techniques, indicate that priorities for American professionals fall most heavily on the travel time to health facilities for Kenyans, while Kenyan citizens themselves prioritize the quality of government healthcare facilities above the other factors. The weights of importance calculated for each factor according to survey responses could lead to varied funding and development priorities both in the type of work to be completed and what locations within Kenya require the most focus.

Recommended Citation

Youngerman, Rebecca, "A Data-Driven Approach to Quantifying Perceptions of Drivers in Kenyan Health Care Quality" (2019). Undergraduate Honors Theses. William & Mary. Paper 1367.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/1367