Ethnic heterogeneity and healthcare utilization: The mediating role of poverty in Ghana

Abstract

Abstract Ethnic heterogeneity defined as two randomly selected individuals who belong to different linguistic or ethnic groups living in a society or an area has received ample attention from researchers. However, the influence of ethnic heterogeneity on healthcare utilization is lacking in the literature. This paper bridges a significant gap in the literature by reporting findings from the first study that examines the effect of ethnic heterogeneity on healthcare utilization in Ghana. The study utilized data from both the Demographic health survey and Ghana Population and Housing Census. Our endogeneity corrected estimates show that a unit increase in a heterogenous ethnic group lowers the likelihood of utilizing healthcare at the time of birth and after delivery via increasing household poverty. Our results indicate the need to design policies and strategies to reduce poverty to increase healthcare utilization in heterogeneous ethnic societies.