Utilisation and barriers of social health protection program among its enrolled population of federally administrative areas, Pakistan.

Objectives: The objective of this research is to analyse the extent of utilisation and identify the barriers faced by individuals in the Federally Administrative Area of Pakistan concerning the Social Health Protection Programme.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out, enrolling permanent residents from Islamabad, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir. The sampling frame was provided by the Sehat Sahulat Programme (SSP) office in Islamabad, using a simple random sampling method. The study used the 'WHO Health Survey 2002' tool, which is validated, to assess the utilisation and barriers of the Social Health Protection Programme.

Results: The study findings indicated that approximately 12% of the participants used the Social Health Protection Programme, while 6.5% experienced barriers in utilisation. The identified barriers were further classified into seeking (3%), reaching (0.25%) and receiving care (3.25%) barriers. A χ test of association revealed significant statistical associations between card utilisation and sociodemographic factors such as age and level of education (p value <0.001). Additionally, statistically significant associations were observed with hospitalisation in the last year, duration and frequency of hospitalisation (p value <0.001). However, no statistically significant association was found between the utilisation of SSP and utilisation barriers.

Conclusion: The SSP had a low utilisation ratio due to the fact that half of the enrolled households were satisfied with their health conditions and did not feel the need for hospitalisation.