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Malaria Related Perceptions, Care Seeking after Onset of Fever and Anti-Malarial Drug Use in Malaria Endemic Settings of Southwest Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Prompt care seeking and appropriate use of anti-malarial drugs are critical components of malaria prevention and control. This study assessed malaria related perceptions, care seeking behavior and anti-malarial drug use in malaria endemic settings of Ethiopia. METHODS: Data were generate...

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Autores principales: Birhanu, Zewdie, Abebe, Lakew, Sudhakar, Morankar, Dissanayake, Gunawardena, Yihdego, Yemane Ye-ebiyo, Alemayehu, Guda, Yewhalaw, Delenasaw
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4982631/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27517717
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0160234
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author Birhanu, Zewdie
Abebe, Lakew
Sudhakar, Morankar
Dissanayake, Gunawardena
Yihdego, Yemane Ye-ebiyo
Alemayehu, Guda
Yewhalaw, Delenasaw
author_facet Birhanu, Zewdie
Abebe, Lakew
Sudhakar, Morankar
Dissanayake, Gunawardena
Yihdego, Yemane Ye-ebiyo
Alemayehu, Guda
Yewhalaw, Delenasaw
author_sort Birhanu, Zewdie
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Prompt care seeking and appropriate use of anti-malarial drugs are critical components of malaria prevention and control. This study assessed malaria related perceptions, care seeking behavior and anti-malarial drug use in malaria endemic settings of Ethiopia. METHODS: Data were generated from a community based cross-sectional study conducted among 798 households during January 2014 as part of a larger household behavioral study in three malaria endemic districts of Jimma Zone, Southwest Ethiopia. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed using SPSS 17.0 and STATA 12.0. RESULTS: In this study, only 76.1% of the respondents associated malaria to mosquito bite, and incorrect beliefs and perceptions were noted. Despite moderate level of knowledge (estimated mean = 62.2, Std Err = 0.7, 95% CI: 60.6–63.8%), quite high favorable attitude (overall estimated mean = 91.5, Std Err = 0.6, 95% CI: 90.1–92.9%) were recorded towards malaria preventive measures. The mean attitude score for prompt care seeking, appropriate use of anti-malarial drugs, LLIN use and Indoor Residual Spray acceptance was 98.5 (Std Err = 0.4, 95% CI:97.5–99.4), 92.7 (Std Err = 0.6 95% CI:91.5–93.9), 88.8 (Std Err = 0.5, 95% CI:85.5–92.1) and 86.5 (Std Err = 1.2, 95% CI: 83.9–89.1), respectively. The prevalence of fever was 2.9% (116/4107) and of the study participants with fever, 71.9% (95% CI: 65.5–78.3%) sought care and all of them consulted formal health care system. However, only 17 (19.8%) sought care within 24 hours after onset of fever. The frequency of care seeking was higher (77.8%, n = 21/27) and more prompt (28.6%, 6/21) for children under five as compared to old age groups despite it was not statistically significant (p > 0.05). However, higher median time of seeking first care was observed among Muslims and people who did not attend school (p < 0.05). Of those who used anti-malarial drugs, 9.1% indicated that they used it inappropriately through saving and/or sharing. Irregular availability of anti-malarial drugs; irregular presence of frontline health workers and misconceptions were mentioned to contribute to delayed care seeking and irrational use of anti-malarial drugs. CONCLUSIONS: Although care seeking behavior for febrile illness was quite high in this community, the habit of prompt care seeking was very limited. Thus, malaria prevention and control programs need to take into account local misconceptions and wrong perceptions, and health system factors to achieve optimal health seeking behavior in such malaria endemic settings.
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spelling pubmed-49826312016-08-29 Malaria Related Perceptions, Care Seeking after Onset of Fever and Anti-Malarial Drug Use in Malaria Endemic Settings of Southwest Ethiopia Birhanu, Zewdie Abebe, Lakew Sudhakar, Morankar Dissanayake, Gunawardena Yihdego, Yemane Ye-ebiyo Alemayehu, Guda Yewhalaw, Delenasaw PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: Prompt care seeking and appropriate use of anti-malarial drugs are critical components of malaria prevention and control. This study assessed malaria related perceptions, care seeking behavior and anti-malarial drug use in malaria endemic settings of Ethiopia. METHODS: Data were generated from a community based cross-sectional study conducted among 798 households during January 2014 as part of a larger household behavioral study in three malaria endemic districts of Jimma Zone, Southwest Ethiopia. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed using SPSS 17.0 and STATA 12.0. RESULTS: In this study, only 76.1% of the respondents associated malaria to mosquito bite, and incorrect beliefs and perceptions were noted. Despite moderate level of knowledge (estimated mean = 62.2, Std Err = 0.7, 95% CI: 60.6–63.8%), quite high favorable attitude (overall estimated mean = 91.5, Std Err = 0.6, 95% CI: 90.1–92.9%) were recorded towards malaria preventive measures. The mean attitude score for prompt care seeking, appropriate use of anti-malarial drugs, LLIN use and Indoor Residual Spray acceptance was 98.5 (Std Err = 0.4, 95% CI:97.5–99.4), 92.7 (Std Err = 0.6 95% CI:91.5–93.9), 88.8 (Std Err = 0.5, 95% CI:85.5–92.1) and 86.5 (Std Err = 1.2, 95% CI: 83.9–89.1), respectively. The prevalence of fever was 2.9% (116/4107) and of the study participants with fever, 71.9% (95% CI: 65.5–78.3%) sought care and all of them consulted formal health care system. However, only 17 (19.8%) sought care within 24 hours after onset of fever. The frequency of care seeking was higher (77.8%, n = 21/27) and more prompt (28.6%, 6/21) for children under five as compared to old age groups despite it was not statistically significant (p > 0.05). However, higher median time of seeking first care was observed among Muslims and people who did not attend school (p < 0.05). Of those who used anti-malarial drugs, 9.1% indicated that they used it inappropriately through saving and/or sharing. Irregular availability of anti-malarial drugs; irregular presence of frontline health workers and misconceptions were mentioned to contribute to delayed care seeking and irrational use of anti-malarial drugs. CONCLUSIONS: Although care seeking behavior for febrile illness was quite high in this community, the habit of prompt care seeking was very limited. Thus, malaria prevention and control programs need to take into account local misconceptions and wrong perceptions, and health system factors to achieve optimal health seeking behavior in such malaria endemic settings. Public Library of Science 2016-08-12 /pmc/articles/PMC4982631/ /pubmed/27517717 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0160234 Text en https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ This is an open access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) public domain dedication.
spellingShingle Research Article
Birhanu, Zewdie
Abebe, Lakew
Sudhakar, Morankar
Dissanayake, Gunawardena
Yihdego, Yemane Ye-ebiyo
Alemayehu, Guda
Yewhalaw, Delenasaw
Malaria Related Perceptions, Care Seeking after Onset of Fever and Anti-Malarial Drug Use in Malaria Endemic Settings of Southwest Ethiopia
title Malaria Related Perceptions, Care Seeking after Onset of Fever and Anti-Malarial Drug Use in Malaria Endemic Settings of Southwest Ethiopia
title_full Malaria Related Perceptions, Care Seeking after Onset of Fever and Anti-Malarial Drug Use in Malaria Endemic Settings of Southwest Ethiopia
title_fullStr Malaria Related Perceptions, Care Seeking after Onset of Fever and Anti-Malarial Drug Use in Malaria Endemic Settings of Southwest Ethiopia
title_full_unstemmed Malaria Related Perceptions, Care Seeking after Onset of Fever and Anti-Malarial Drug Use in Malaria Endemic Settings of Southwest Ethiopia
title_short Malaria Related Perceptions, Care Seeking after Onset of Fever and Anti-Malarial Drug Use in Malaria Endemic Settings of Southwest Ethiopia
title_sort malaria related perceptions, care seeking after onset of fever and anti-malarial drug use in malaria endemic settings of southwest ethiopia
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4982631/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27517717
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0160234
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