Page 7 - IJPS-10-4

International Journal of

Population Studies

REVIEW ARTICLE
Accessibility and utilization of health-care

services among rural–urban migrants in Ghana:
A scoping review

2
Godfred Otchere 1 , Samuel Egyakwa Ankomah * , Adam Fusheini 1,3 ,
4
Emmanuel Kumah , and Samuel Kofi Agyei 5
1 Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Otago, Dunedin,
Otago, New Zealand
2 Obstetrics and Gynaecology Directorate, Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Kumasi, Ashanti Region,
Ghana
3 Public Service Department of New Zealand, Ministry of Social Development, Wellington, New Zealand
4 Department of Health Administration and Education, Faculty of Health, Allied Sciences and Home
Economics Education, University of Education, Winneba, Central Region, Ghana
5 Department of Physician Assistant, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, Presbyterian University,
Agogo, Ashanti Region, Ghana

Abstract
Since the second half of the 20 century, internal migration patterns in Ghana have
th
been dominated by movements from rural (or northern) to urban (or southern) areas.
Numerous studies report wide socioeconomic gaps between the geographical north
and south of Ghana, explaining the unidirectional movement in search of better
*Corresponding author: opportunities. Differences in personal health profiles, values, and beliefs mean that
Samuel Egyakwa Ankomah
(sankomah@kath.gov.gh) internal migrants face a higher risk of ill health than urban natives. Compounding
this issue is the barriers that impede their access to and utilization of health-care
Citation: Otchere, G., Ankomah,
S.E., Fusheini, A., Kumah, E. & services. We synthesized evidence from existing literature to understand internal
Agyei, S.K. (2024). Accessibility and migrants’ access to and utilization of healthcare in Ghana, as well as their coping
utilization of health-care services strategies. This review followed Arksey and O’Malley’s guidelines for conducting
among rural–urban migrants
in Ghana: A scoping review. scoping reviews. We searched PubMed, EconLit, CINAHL, PsychINFO, and Medline
International Journal of Population (Ovid) electronic databases for studies published from January 2012 to June 2022.
Studies, 10(4): 1-17. In addition, a manual literature search was conducted on Google by examining the
https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.2314 reference lists of selected articles to identify other relevant studies. The majority of the
Received: November 26, 2023 studies (n = 12 [75%]) focused on female migrants, while 4 (25%) included both male
Accepted: March 13, 2024 and female migrants. This review identified several factors affecting access to health-
care services for internal migrants in Ghana. These factors included infrastructural,
Published Online: July 10, 2024 financial, and language barriers, as well as long patient waiting times. Significantly,
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s). these barriers resulted in increased self-medication and self-diagnosis among internal
This is an Open-Access article migrants, leading to overall poor health outcomes. Based on the study findings, we
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution propose a multidimensional approach to bridging the health access gap for internal
License, permitting distribution, migrants. This approach involves improving health system factors such as health
and reproduction in any medium, service delivery, health workforce, availability of essential medicines, and health
provided the original work is
properly cited. finance reforms to provide quality health-care services at affordable or no cost, while
considering the socioeconomic and cultural conditions of the internal migrants.
Publisher’s Note: AccScience
Publishing remains neutral with
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional Keywords: Internal migrants; Access; Healthcare; Utilization; Ghana; Health system
affiliations.

Volume 10 Issue 4 (2024) 1 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.2314