Determinants of Malaria Treatment Seeking Behaviour among Urban and Rural Households in North Central Nigeria (original) (raw)

Journal of Advances in Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Background: Malaria is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in Nigeria accounting for a significant proportion of household expenditure in treatment and prophylaxis. Nigeria account for 25% of global clinical cases and mortality and also has the highest malaria burden in sub Saharan Africa. In most cases of malaria illness, treatment takes place at the community level and only few serious cases are taken to healthcare facilities. A number of cultural, socioeconomic, patient related and health service provider variables often in a complex interplay are known to influence treatment seeking behaviour, though the relative importance of variables differ widely between settings. Objectives: To identify where households receive malaria treatment services as well as prevalence of malaria related hospitalization. Also to identify the most common factor(s) that most influence malaria treatment behaviour. Methods: This is a cross section study using multistage sampling method for household survey. This study was carried out during the rainy months of June and July 2016. Six towns with high urban and rural population density in Benue State were purposely selected for survey. A total of