Predictors of toilet ownership in South Africa

Background: To date no study in South Africa (to our knowledge) has attempted to isolate the key socio-economic variables associated with toilet ownership.Objective: To contribute towards bridging knowledge-gap by identifying the key predictors of toilet ownership.Design: Cross-sectional national household sample survey.Setting: South African Health Inequalities Survey, 1994.Subjects: Three thousand seven hundred and ninety six respondents aged between 16 and 64 years.Interventions: Non-intervention qualitative response econometric study.Main outcome measures: Respondent ownership of a toilet in their house (or compound).Results: The study revealed that respondents’ area of residence, health insurance coverage, income, age (in years), gender, level of education, health education, racial group, and employment status have statistically significant positive impact on the likelihood of toiletownership.Conclusion: Any government policies geared at improving living conditions (incomes, education, health education, and employment opportunities) for the less-well-to-do in urban and rural areas would increase the likelihood of toilet ownership in South Africa

The cost of health professionals' brain drain in Kenya

BACKGROUND: Past attempts to estimate the cost of migration were limited to education costs only and did not include the lost returns from investment. The objectives of this study were: (i) to estimate the financial cost of emigration of Kenyan doctors to the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States of America (USA); (ii) to estimate the financial cost of emigration of nurses to seven OECD countries (Canada, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Portugal, UK, USA); and (iii) to describe other losses from brain drain. METHODS: The costs of primary, secondary, medical and nursing schools were estimated in 2005. The cost information used in this study was obtained from one non-profit primary and secondary school and one public university in Kenya. The cost estimates represent unsubsidized cost. The loss incurred by Kenya through emigration was obtained by compounding the cost of educating a medical doctor and a nurse over the period between the average age of emigration (30 years) and the age of retirement (62 years) in recipient countries. RESULTS: The total cost of educating a single medical doctor from primary school to university is US$65,997; and for every doctor who emigrates, a country loses about US$ 517,931 worth of returns from investment. The total cost of educating one nurse from primary school to college of health sciences is US$43,180; and for every nurse that emigrates, a country loses about US$ 338,868 worth of returns from investment. CONCLUSION: Developed countries continue to deprive Kenya of millions of dollars worth of investments embodied in her human resources for health. If the current trend of poaching of scarce human resources for health (and other professionals) from Kenya is not curtailed, the chances of achieving the Millennium Development Goals would remain bleak. Such continued plunder of investments embodied in human resources contributes to further underdevelopment of Kenya and to keeping a majority of her people in the vicious circle of ill-health and poverty. Therefore, both developed and developing countries need to urgently develop and implement strategies for addressing the health human resource crisis