Factors affecting households’ trust in the community based health insurance scheme in Ethiopia

The trust that potentially community-based health insurance (CBHI) members have in the actual health insurance scheme is a crucial determinant for members who decided to enroll and continue being members of the scheme. While the literature on health insurance in low-income countries mentions the importance of trust in consumers’ decision to insure, to date the association between trust and trust-building factors has not been researched in the Ethiopian context. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the factors affecting households’ trust in the CBHI scheme in Ethiopia. A community-based cross-sectional study design was employed to collect data from 617 household heads from March 1–30, 2020. A multistage sampling technique was carried out and interviewer-administered questionnaires were used to collect data. Descriptive statistics and multivariable linear regression analyses were performed, and variables with a P -value < 0.05 were considered to have a statistically significant association with trust in the CBHI scheme. A household survey resulted in 617 households being interviewed making a response rate of 97.3%. The mean age of the respondents was 44.7 (SD°11.2) years and the majority of the respondents were Oromo 528(85.6%). Holding other covariant fixed, educational level of household head (ß = 0.17, 95% CI:0.14–0.32), members’ satisfaction with past experience (ß = 0.40, 95%CI:0.41–0.57), favorable attitude toward CBHI (ß = 0.31, 95%CI:0.12–0.49), perceived quality of service (ß = 0.15, 95% CI:0.02–0.29) and dropout from CBHI (ß = -0.23, 95%CI:- 0.41–- 0.05) were covariant that had an association with trust in the CBHI scheme. This study found that the educational level of the household head, members’ satisfaction with past experience, members’ attitude toward CBHI, perceived quality of services and dropout from CBHI were covariant that were affecting trust in the CBHI scheme. Therefore, if the scheme wants to build trust and maintain membership, great attention should be given toward the improvement of the quality of service and attitude of members towards the CBHI scheme. These findings suggest that CBHI managers, different health insurance agencies, providers and policymakers need to think systematically about a wide range of initiatives that enhance trust and caring, and to design trust-building structures and practices that sustain the CBHI scheme.