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Assessment of the knowledge, attitude and practices of prescribers regarding malaria diagnosis: a cross sectional study among Ghanaian prescribers

INTRODUCTION: Malaria has proven to be the most fatal parasitic disease known to man. Among the pillars to malaria control are early and accurate diagnosis. In 2010, the World Health Organization launched its test, treat and track initiative which seeks to ensure that all suspected cases of malaria...

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Autores principales: Prah, James Kojo, Yeboah-Sarpong, Atta, Pinkrah, Richard, Ewudzi-Acquah, Elias
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The African Field Epidemiology Network 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7060909/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32180881
http://dx.doi.org/10.11604/pamj.2019.34.207.19940
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author Prah, James Kojo
Yeboah-Sarpong, Atta
Pinkrah, Richard
Ewudzi-Acquah, Elias
author_facet Prah, James Kojo
Yeboah-Sarpong, Atta
Pinkrah, Richard
Ewudzi-Acquah, Elias
author_sort Prah, James Kojo
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: Malaria has proven to be the most fatal parasitic disease known to man. Among the pillars to malaria control are early and accurate diagnosis. In 2010, the World Health Organization launched its test, treat and track initiative which seeks to ensure that all suspected cases of malaria are tested. However, after several years of implementation, the use of malaria tests in diagnosing malaria has not been optimum. This study was conducted to assess the level of knowledge of prescribers on malaria Rapid Diagnostic Test and microscopy and to determine factors influencing prescribers' decision to request and use malaria tests in practice. METHODS: A cross sectional study was carried out among 100 prescribers of various categories working in 4 hospitals in Ghana in March 2019. A pre-tested self-administered questionnaire was used to collect information on knowledge, malaria diagnostic practices and challenges faced by prescribers regarding parasitological testing for malaria in their health facilities. RESULTS: Overall, 73% of respondents had good knowledge on malaria diagnostics. Routine use of malaria tests in diagnosing malaria was reported as 84%. Only 9% reported complete reliance on test results. Most participants (90%) reported awareness of the test-based case management of malaria. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that even though there was a high level of awareness of the test-before treatment policy among prescribers, significant numbers did not routinely request a malaria test for all suspected cases of malaria. Factors cited as barriers by prescribers were both health worker and health-system related that are all potentially modifiable.
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spelling pubmed-70609092020-03-16 Assessment of the knowledge, attitude and practices of prescribers regarding malaria diagnosis: a cross sectional study among Ghanaian prescribers Prah, James Kojo Yeboah-Sarpong, Atta Pinkrah, Richard Ewudzi-Acquah, Elias Pan Afr Med J Research INTRODUCTION: Malaria has proven to be the most fatal parasitic disease known to man. Among the pillars to malaria control are early and accurate diagnosis. In 2010, the World Health Organization launched its test, treat and track initiative which seeks to ensure that all suspected cases of malaria are tested. However, after several years of implementation, the use of malaria tests in diagnosing malaria has not been optimum. This study was conducted to assess the level of knowledge of prescribers on malaria Rapid Diagnostic Test and microscopy and to determine factors influencing prescribers' decision to request and use malaria tests in practice. METHODS: A cross sectional study was carried out among 100 prescribers of various categories working in 4 hospitals in Ghana in March 2019. A pre-tested self-administered questionnaire was used to collect information on knowledge, malaria diagnostic practices and challenges faced by prescribers regarding parasitological testing for malaria in their health facilities. RESULTS: Overall, 73% of respondents had good knowledge on malaria diagnostics. Routine use of malaria tests in diagnosing malaria was reported as 84%. Only 9% reported complete reliance on test results. Most participants (90%) reported awareness of the test-based case management of malaria. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that even though there was a high level of awareness of the test-before treatment policy among prescribers, significant numbers did not routinely request a malaria test for all suspected cases of malaria. Factors cited as barriers by prescribers were both health worker and health-system related that are all potentially modifiable. The African Field Epidemiology Network 2019-12-19 /pmc/articles/PMC7060909/ /pubmed/32180881 http://dx.doi.org/10.11604/pamj.2019.34.207.19940 Text en © James Kojo Prah et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ The Pan African Medical Journal - ISSN 1937-8688. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research
Prah, James Kojo
Yeboah-Sarpong, Atta
Pinkrah, Richard
Ewudzi-Acquah, Elias
Assessment of the knowledge, attitude and practices of prescribers regarding malaria diagnosis: a cross sectional study among Ghanaian prescribers
title Assessment of the knowledge, attitude and practices of prescribers regarding malaria diagnosis: a cross sectional study among Ghanaian prescribers
title_full Assessment of the knowledge, attitude and practices of prescribers regarding malaria diagnosis: a cross sectional study among Ghanaian prescribers
title_fullStr Assessment of the knowledge, attitude and practices of prescribers regarding malaria diagnosis: a cross sectional study among Ghanaian prescribers
title_full_unstemmed Assessment of the knowledge, attitude and practices of prescribers regarding malaria diagnosis: a cross sectional study among Ghanaian prescribers
title_short Assessment of the knowledge, attitude and practices of prescribers regarding malaria diagnosis: a cross sectional study among Ghanaian prescribers
title_sort assessment of the knowledge, attitude and practices of prescribers regarding malaria diagnosis: a cross sectional study among ghanaian prescribers
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7060909/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32180881
http://dx.doi.org/10.11604/pamj.2019.34.207.19940
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