Browsing by Author "Cally, Ardington"

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    Health Seeking Behavior in Northern KwaZulu-Natal
    (2005) Anne, Case; Alicia, Menendez; Cally, Ardington
    We examine patterns of health seeking behaviour prior to death among 1282 individuals who lived in the Umkhanyakude District of Northern KwaZuluNatal. Information on the health care choices of these individuals, who died between January 2003 and July 2004, was gathered after their deaths from their primary care-givers. We examine choices made concerning public and private medicine, western and traditional medicine, and non-prescribed self-medication. We find that virtually all adults who were ill prior to death sought treatment from a Western medical provider, visiting either a public clinic or a private doctor. In this district, which is predominantly poor, ninety percent of adults who sought treatment from a public clinic also visited a private doctor. Fifty percent also sought treatment from a traditional healer, suggesting that traditional medicine is seen as a complement to, rather than a substitute for, Western care. Better educated people who were ill for less than a month before dying were significantly more likely to visit a private doctor, while those least well educated were more likely to visit a traditional healer. Controlling for length of illness, better educated and wealthier people sought care from a greater range of providers, and spent significantly more on their treatment.
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    Savings, insurance and debt over the post-apartheid period: a review of recent research
    (2004) Cally, Ardington; David, Lam; Murray, Leibbrandt; James, Levinsohn
    Sustainable poverty reduction requires that poor households effectively manage risk. The absence of basic financial services is a major obstacle to poverty reduction in South Africa. This paper reviews available South African literature on utilisation of formal and informal risk management instruments. The centrality of income in accessing the complementary bundle of formal financial services excludes households in the lower deciles from formal financial services. Rural households and households without formally employed household members are also denied access. Strong complementarities with informal channels of finance mean that these same households have limited access to even informal financial services. Promoting the use of savings accounts in pension and social grant payouts and the growth of village banks have been suggested as means to increase formal access for the poor.