Appraisal of Environmental and Personal Factors on the Ward Development Committees’ Functionality on Primary Health Care Facilities in Akinyele Local Government Area.

Ward Development Committees, as outlined in the WHS operational guidelines, are citizen representatives and are expected to play a vital role in identifying & addressing health priorities at the community level. This study evaluated the functionality of WDCs within the PHC system in Akinyele LGA of Oyo State, Nigeria. The study employed descriptive survey research design with purposive sampling to select 240 WDC members and 12 heads of health facilities in Akinyele LGA. Structured questionnaires, alongside in-depth interviews were used for data collection. The analysis, conducted using descriptive statistics and linear regression at a significance level of P = 0.05. The result showed that there is significant influence of environmental factors (institutional support & political interference) on WDCs functionality with (F = 160.342, R = .758, R2 = .575 and Adjusted R2 = .571; p < .05. While the result on personal factors (education & health status and residence in the community also showed significant influence on functionality of WDCs members with (F = 46.269, R = .609, R2 = .370 and Adjusted R2 = .362; p < .05. The study concluded that addressing environmental & personal factors is essential to improving the functionality of WDCs. However, there is a need to minimize political interference, provide institutional support through trainings etc, and consider personal attributes such as residence in the community, when selecting WDC members will substantially impact positively on the WDCs' functionality within phc system.