Influence of risk taking propensity among Kenyan community health workers

Abstract

The study sought to establish and examine the extent to which risk-taking propensity and entrepreneurial behaviour influences health indicators among community health workers and their clients. The area of study location was Kisumu East District, Kisumu County, Nyanza Province in Kenya. Data on health indicators such as Antenatal Clinic use, Facility delivery, Measles immunization, Insecticide Treated Nets use, water treatment and latrine use were collected through structured questionnaires and analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Community health workers with high risk taking propensity as an entrepreneurial characteristics achieved better results in health indicators than those with low entrepreneurial characteristics especially in health facility delivery and water treatment. This could be a solution to motivating community health workers who are being considered for task shifting in the health work force yet how to remunerate them is a problem since a budget for their services would be unmanageable by governments