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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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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
The African Field Epidemiology Network
2019
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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. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7060909 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | The African Field Epidemiology Network |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
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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