In the Democratic Republic of Congo, a large part of the population now lives in a context of extreme poverty and suffers from serious health problems. Deprived of social protection, these people see themselves therefore in the financial inability to access quality health care. This study aims to analyze the different characteristics of members of the mutual health insurance and compare with non-members. The following observations were made: Of those surveyed, 97.7% and 91.4% of members were not members resorted average 4 times to health services during the last 6 months prior to the survey, a statistically significant difference was observed (p = 0.027). The survey data showed that a significant proportion of members and non-members (62.5% vs 66.4%; p = 0.36) had resorted to self-medication. For non-members, the rate of selfmedication and traditional therapy were higher. Lack of money is mentioned by members and non-members as a problem limiting access to health care (38.3% vs 69.5%; p < 0.0001).
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.