THE DEMAND FOR HEALTHCARE OVER THE LIFE -CYLE IN URBAN AREAS OF NIGERIA

Many people in the developing world go without health care from which they could benefit greatly. Beyond this, there are evidences that the health care needs of individuals differ greatly at different stages of their life cycle. High rural-urban migration further compounds the health problems of urban residents. The lifecycle has been divided into four stages which are 0-5 years, 6-15 years, 16-59 years and those that are 60 years and above.The classification is determined by the structure of health risk faced by different age groups. This study examines health care demand over the life cycle in urban areas of Nigeria. Although there is no panel data on household living standard in Nigeria, we have done our analysis for a single year but consider different age group using a cross sectional data. The data set used for this study is the 2004 Nigerian Living Standard Survey (NLSS). The study used the Nested Multinomial Logit Models (NMNL) estimation techniques. Our tentative findings while parental education and occupational structure are important determinants of child demand for health care, self- income and educational level are the most important determinants for those aged 16-59 years old.