Factors affecting motivation and retention of primary health care workers in three disparate regions in Kenya

Table 2 Background characteristics of respondents

Characteristic	Category	Nairobi (n = 171) %	Machakos (n = 135) %	Turkana (n = 98) %	Total (n = 404) %
Sex	Male	38.0	27.4	69.4	42.1
	Female	62.0	72.6%	30.6	57.9
Age	≤35 years	62.7	68.1	72.4	66.9
	>35 years	37.3	31.9	27.6	33.1
Education	Post secondaryeducation	90.6	90.3	56.6	80.2
Marital status	Married	67.3	58.2	73.5	65.8
	Unmarried	32.7	41.8	26.5	34.2
	Farming	12.1	27.5	1.0	14.5
Alternative sources of income	Business	10.9	12.2	20.6	13.7
	Consultation¹	1.8	0.0	0	0.8
	Part-time job²	0.0	3.1	13.4	4.3
	Other³	75.2	57.3	64.9	66.7

¹Consultation here refers to provision of health services, advice, or consultancy for a fee and for a specified short duration of time.
²Part-time job means working some of the time during the day, week, or month; usually an agreement or contract is signed.
³The ‘other’ category comprises a large percentage, possibly because of the diverse activities that the many support staff in this study are involved in.

ISSN: 1478-4491