Factors associated with mothers’ health care-seeking behaviours for childhood fever in Burkina Faso: findings from repeated cross-sectional household surveys

INTRODUCTION: Fever is one of the most frequent reasons for paediatric consultations in Burkina Faso, but health care-seeking behaviours and the factors associated with health care-seeking in the event of childhood fever are poorly documented. This study aims to analyse the health care-seeking behaviours and the factors associated with health care-seeking for childhood fever in Burkina Faso. METHODS: This study used the data from the baseline and endline surveys conducted to evaluate the impact of the Performance-Based Financing program in Burkina Faso. Univariate and multivariate binary logistic regression analyses were used to identify the factors associated with appropriate healthcare-seeking for childhood fever. Odds ratios were estimated to assess the strength of associations and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used for significance tests. Data were cleaned, coded and analysed using Stata software version 16.1. RESULTS: Among the children under five who had a fever, 75.19% and 79.76% sought appropriate health care in 2013 and 2017, respectively. Being 24–59 months old (AOR: 0.344, 95% CI 0.182–0.649 in 2013 and AOR: 0. 208, 95% CI 0.115–0.376 in 2017), living in a very wealthy household (AOR: 2.014, 95% CI 1.149–3.531 in 2013 and AOR: 2.165, 95% CI 1.223–3.834 in 2017), having a mother with a secondary or higher level of education or having made at least four antenatal care visits were significantly associated with seeking appropriate health care for childhood fever. Living in an area where the health facility is safe was also significantly associated with seeking appropriate care for childhood fevers. CONCLUSIONS: The findings underscore the need to concentrate efforts aiming at sensitizing the population (especially women of childbearing age) to improve sanitation and the use of family planning (household composition), skilled antenatal care and postnatal care to help reduce the prevalence of fever in children under five and improve the use of medical healthcare for childhood fever.