Validating the place of onchocerciasis in migration

Oyekanmi Babatimehin, Obafemi Awolowo University
N.O Adeoye, Obafemi Awolowo University
Sina Ayanlade, Dept. of Geography, King's College London

Despite the rich empirical evidence which suggests that rural-urban drift is often induced by economic considerations and rural deprivation, the literature on onchocerciasis have often claimed that the disease induces massive out-migration from endemic communities. The study therefore examined the actual causes of out-migration in this onchocerciasis endemic area. The study area, Patigi LGA, Kwara State, Nigeria was stratified into three administrative districts. 200 heads of household were randomly selected from each stratum for questionnaire interview, using the LGA’s onchocerciasis control register comprising of 3005 registered households as database. The Probit regression analysis showed that the significant migration factors were education (T = 8.3321, p<.01), economic factors (T = 6.0993, p<.01) and marriage (T = 5.0458, p<.01). The study concludes that, the assertion which states that Onchocerciasis leads to massive out-migration from endemic communities is not true.