IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v12y2015i1p521-540d44499.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assessment of Malawian Mothers’ Malaria Knowledge, Healthcare Preferences and Timeliness of Seeking Fever Treatments for Children Under Five

Author

Listed:
  • Abayomi Samuel Oyekale

    (Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, North-West University Mafikeng Campus, Mmabatho 2735, South Africa)

Abstract

Malaria is one of the major public health problems in Malawi, contributing to the majority of morbidity and mortality among children under five. Ignorance of malaria symptoms results in delayed treatment, which often degenerates into fatal emergencies. This study analyzed the impact of maternal malaria knowledge on healthcare preferences and timeliness of treating children with reported fever. The Malaria Indicator Survey data for 2012, which were adequately weighted, were analyzed using multinomial logit and Poisson regression models. The results showed low maternal average years of formal education (3.52) and average mothers’ age was 27.97 years. Majority of the women (84.98%) associated fever with malaria, while 44.17% associated it with chilling. Also, 54.42% and 32.43% of the children were treated for fever on the same day and the following day that fever started, respectively. About 9.70% paid for fever treatment from their regular incomes, while 51.38% sought treatment from either public or private health centers. Multinomial Logit regression results showed that relative to using of other treatments, probabilities of selecting private hospitals and public health centers increased with age of the household heads, resident in urban areas, mothers’ years of education, number of days taken off for treatment, paying medical bills from regular, occasional and borrowed incomes, and knowledge of diarrhea and shivering as symptoms of malaria. In the Poisson regression results, timeliness of seeking treatment was significantly enhanced by knowledge of fever as malaria symptom, residence in northern and central regions of Malawi and use of income from sale of assets to pay medical bills ( p < 0.10).However, delays in treating children was motivated by age of the household heads, number of days taken off to care for sick child and usage of regular, borrowed and other incomes to pay medical bills. ( p < 0.05). It was concluded that efficiency of public sector in treating malaria holds significant prospects for fighting malaria in Malawi. However, adequate efforts should be channeled in enhancing the knowledge of women on malaria symptoms, among others.

Suggested Citation

  • Abayomi Samuel Oyekale, 2015. "Assessment of Malawian Mothers’ Malaria Knowledge, Healthcare Preferences and Timeliness of Seeking Fever Treatments for Children Under Five," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-20, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:12:y:2015:i:1:p:521-540:d:44499
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/12/1/521/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/12/1/521/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Emilio Depetris†Chauvin & David N. Weil, 2018. "Malaria and Early African Development: Evidence from the Sickle Cell Trait," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 128(610), pages 1207-1234, May.
    2. Defo, B.A., 1996. "Areal and Socioeconomic Differentials in Infant and Child Mortality in Cameroon," Papers 96-05, RAND - Reprint Series.
    3. Jean-Christophe Fotso & Barthelemy Kuate-Defo, 2005. "Measuring socioeconomic status in health research in developing countries: Should we be focusing on households, communities or both?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 72(2), pages 189-237, June.
    4. Garrett, James L. & Ruel, Marie T., 1999. "Are Determinants of Rural and Urban Food Security and Nutritional Status Different? Some Insights from Mozambique," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(11), pages 1955-1975, November.
    5. Jane Kabubo-Mariara & Godfrey K. Ndenge & Domisiano K. Mwabu, 2009. "Determinants of Children's Nutritional Status in Kenya: Evidence from Demographic and Health Surveys," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 18(3), pages 363-387, June.
    6. Smith, Lisa C. & Ruel, Marie T. & Ndiaye, Aida, 2005. "Why Is Child Malnutrition Lower in Urban Than in Rural Areas? Evidence from 36 Developing Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(8), pages 1285-1305, August.
    7. Defo, Barthélémy Kuate, 1996. "Areal and socioeconomic differentials in infant and child mortality in Cameroon," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 399-420, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Abayomi Samuel Oyekale, 2023. "Utilization of Proximate Healthcare Facilities and Children’s Wait Times in Senegal: An IV-Tobit Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(21), pages 1-18, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Christopher Grigoriou & Patrick Guillaumont, 2011. "Child Mortality Reacts to Relative Prices," CERDI Working papers halshs-00556800, HAL.
    2. Vellore Arthi & James Fenske, 2018. "Polygamy and child mortality: Historical and modern evidence from Nigeria’s Igbo," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 97-141, March.
    3. Mulubrhan Amare & Channing Arndt & Kibrom A Abay & Todd Benson, 2020. "Urbanization and Child Nutritional Outcomes," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 34(1), pages 63-74.
    4. Pahlisch, Thi Hoa & Parvathi, Priyanka & Waibel, Hermann, 2017. "Comparing peri-urban versus rural poverty and child malnutrition reduction: Insights from Southeast Asia," TVSEP Working Papers wp-005, Leibniz Universitaet Hannover, Institute of Development and Agricultural Economics, Project TVSEP.
    5. Petrou, Stavros & Kupek, Emil, 2010. "Poverty and childhood undernutrition in developing countries: A multi-national cohort study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(7), pages 1366-1373, October.
    6. Carlo Azzarri & Alberto Zezza & Beliyou Haile & Elizabeth Cross, 2015. "Does Livestock Ownership Affect Animal Source Foods Consumption and Child Nutritional Status? Evidence from Rural Uganda," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(8), pages 1034-1059, August.
    7. Mesbah Fathy Sharaf & Ahmed Shoukry Rashad, 2016. "Regional inequalities in child malnutrition in Egypt, Jordan, and Yemen: a Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition analysis," Health Economics Review, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 1-11, December.
    8. Babatunde, R.O., 2018. "Impact of Remittances on Food Security and Nutrition of Migrant s Household: Evidence from Nigeria," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 276986, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    9. Izutsu, Takashi & Tsutsumi, Atsuro & Islam, Akramul Md. & Kato, Seika & Wakai, Susumu & Kurita, Hiroshi, 2006. "Mental health, quality of life, and nutritional status of adolescents in Dhaka, Bangladesh: Comparison between an urban slum and a non-slum area," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(6), pages 1477-1488, September.
    10. Thirunaukarasu Subramaniam & Nanthakumar Loganathan & Erez Yerushalmi & Evelyn Shyamala Devadason & Mazlan Majid, 2018. "Determinants of Infant Mortality in Older ASEAN Economies," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 136(1), pages 397-415, February.
    11. Ecker, Olivier & Mabiso, Athur & Kennedy, Adam & Diao, Xinshen 22905, 2011. "Making agriculture pro-nutrition: Opportunities in Tanzania," IFPRI discussion papers 1124, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    12. Richard Mussa, 2015. "Intrahousehold and Interhousehold Child Nutrition Inequality in Malawi," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 83(1), pages 140-153, March.
    13. Richard Mussa, 2014. "A matching decomposition of the rural–urban difference in malnutrition in Malawi," Health Economics Review, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 1-10, December.
    14. Cockx, Lara & De Weerdt, Joachim, 2016. "From Corn to Popcorn? Urbanization and food consumption in Sub-Sahara Africa: Evidence from rural-urban migrants in Tanzania," 2016 Fifth International Conference, September 23-26, 2016, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 249270, African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).
    15. Aramide Kazeem & John M. Musalia, 2018. "The Implication of Early Childhood Malnutrition for Age of Entry into Primary School in Nigeria," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 11(4), pages 1337-1368, August.
    16. Abdur Razzaque Sarker & Marufa Sultana & Nurnabi Sheikh & Raisul Akram & Nausad Ali & Rashidul Alam Mahumud & Khorshed Alam & Alec Morton, 2020. "Inequality of childhood undernutrition in Bangladesh: A decomposition approach," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(2), pages 441-468, March.
    17. Narayan Sastry, 2004. "Urbanization, development and under-five mortality differentials by place of residence in São Paulo, Brazil, 1970-1991," Demographic Research Special Collections, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 2(14), pages 355-386.
    18. Kandala, Ngianga-Bakwin & Magadi, Monica Akinyi & Madise, Nyovani Janet, 2006. "An investigation of district spatial variations of childhood diarrhoea and fever morbidity in Malawi," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(5), pages 1138-1152, March.
    19. Ernesto Cardenas & Ana María Osorio & Orlando Joaqui Barandica & Sayda Milena Pico Fonseca, 2022. "Mind the Gap! Socioeconomic Determinants of the Stunting Urban-Rural Gap for Children in Colombia," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 15(2), pages 415-432, April.
    20. D. Omariba & Roderic Beaujot & Fernando Rajulton, 2007. "Determinants of infant and child mortality in Kenya: an analysis controlling for frailty effects," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 26(3), pages 299-321, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:12:y:2015:i:1:p:521-540:d:44499. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.