Cash transfers and uptake of healthcare services for children raised in kinship care in South Africa.

Khuthala Mabetha, University of the Witwatersrand
Nicole De Wet- Billings, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Matshidiso Sello, University of the Witwatersrand
Makuapan Lerato, University of Witwatersrand

Background: Although the Child Support Grant (CSG) was initially implemented to improve food sufficiency and nutritional intake of impoverished households, it has progressively improved children’s wellbeing. While literature has focused on how Cash Transfer Programmes (CCTs) influence maternal and child health (MCH) including utilisation of child health services, studies have not investigated CCTs influence on uptake of healthcare services for children raised by other caregivers. Methods: A cross-sectional study was adopted through analysing the 2017 South African National Income Dynamics Survey for data of children aged 0-17 who lived in the household of a relative kin caregiver. The dependent variable was uptake of health services in the past 12 months and the independent variable was cash transfers. Results: 383,987 children were surveyed in this study. Majority of all children raised in kinship care received a child support grant irrespective of the frequency of uptake of health services in the past 12 months, with a slightly higher percentage of child support grant recipients being observed among children who were taken once (87.8%) to a healthcare professional. Conclusion: Extended relatives can provide adequate care to children under their care provided that they receive guidance and resources that will assist in adequately fulfilling the caregiving role.

Keywords: Children, Adolescents, and Youth, Health and Morbidity, Families, Unions and Households, Population and Development

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