title: [Access to health care in Dakar (Senegal): frequency, type of provider, and non-communicable chronic diseases].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  (1) To describe access to health care in the population of Dakar; (2) to analyze the influence of socioeconomic and demographic characteristics on access to health care; (3) and to describe the fraction of consultations accounted for by chronic non-communicable diseases.
  
  
  METHODS
  These data come from a 2009 survey of 600 individuals aged 20 years and over. Socioeconomic and demographic characteristics and information about access to health care were collected. Chi-square tests and binary logistic regressions were used for the statistical analyses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Men, people with no schooling, and poor people were underrepresented among users of health care services. Moreover, the majority of Dakar residents who sought health care during the year preceding the survey went to see a doctor (as opposed to a traditional healer, pharmacist, nurse, midwife, or dentist). Finally, chronic diseases accounted for the smallest fraction of reasons for medical consultations; they were mentioned most often by those aged 50 years or older who consult more than 5 times a year.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Dakar residents have an access to health care similar to that of people in other African countries, but this conclusion hides major inequalities. Moreover, at the same time that Senegal is undergoing an epidemiological transition, chronic non-communicable diseases are not a major reason for consultations. The epidemiological projections made for Africa for the next 15 years indicate that the development of strategies to avert the development of these diseases in Senegal must be a priority objective.
authors.affiliation: UMR 7268 Anthropologie bioculturelle, droit, éthique et santé (Aix-Marseille Université/EFS/CNRS), faculté de médecine, secteur Nord, boulevard Pierre Dramard, 13344 Marseille cedex 15, Fance.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Duboz
authors.affiliation: UMI 3189 Environnement, santé, sociétés, CNRS/UGB, Dakar, Sénégal.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gueye
authors.affiliation: UMI 3189 Environnement, santé, sociétés, CNRS/UGB, Dakar, Sénégal.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Boetsch
authors.affiliation: UMI 3189 Environnement, santé, sociétés, CNRS/UGB, Dakar, Sénégal.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Macia
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012675:Senegal; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Senegal; biological anthropology; diabetes; health; hypertension