Health services utilisation among secondary school students in Arusha region, Tanzania

To investigate patterns and determinants of health services utilisation by secondary school students.

A cross-sectional survey.

Twelve secondary schools located within seven districts of Arusha region Tanzania.

Three thousand six hundred and three students proportionately selected from the twelve schools according to enrolment size.

Self-reported use of modern and traditional health services within the past two years.

The majority (77%) of the students used only modern health services while very few (1.3%) used only traditional services. Fever was the main reason for seeking health care during the last visit. Respondents who used traditional services expressed lower level of satisfaction with the services than those who used modern services. Living situation and socio-economic status of respondent's family predicted utilisation of modern health services whereas self-rated health status and perception that poverty was a threat against one's health predicted utilisation of traditional health services.

Since most of secondary school students use modern health services, improvement of the modern health system is likely to benefit this population. Further work is needed to elucidate factors that facilitate or impede use of health services by young people in Tanzania.