ArticleThe Pan African medical journal2019
The effect of subsidized malaria treatment among under-five children in the Buea Health District, Cameroon.
Article in The Pan African medical journal, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 10 citations in OpenAlex.
- From fees to free: impacts of user fee removal on child health outcomes - a systematic review.International journal for equity in health · 2025Pooled it
- Non-linear age dynamics of malaria infection and fine-scale environmental exposure in rural Uganda.BMC medicine · 2026Article
- Prevalence and patterns of pediatric surgical pathologies in three referral hospitals in Cameroon.Frontiers in surgery · 2025Article
- Financing for equity for women's, children's and adolescents' health in low- and middle-income countries: A scoping review.PLOS global public health · 2024Article
- User fee exemption and malaria treatment-seeking for children under five in a Cameroonian health district: a cross-sectional study.Malaria journal · 2023Article
- Malaria amongst children under five in sub-Saharan Africa: a scoping review of prevalence, risk factors and preventive interventions.European journal of medical research · 2023Article
- Knowledge, attitude, and adherence to malaria control guidelines and the prevalence ofFrontiers in public health · 2023Article
- Malaria Case Fatality Rate among Children under Five in Burkina Faso: An Assessment of the Spatiotemporal Trends Following the Implementation of Control Programs.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionAccess to free diagnoses and treatments has been shown to be a major determinant in malaria control. The Cameroon government launched in 2011 and 2014 the exemption of the under-fives' simple and severe malaria treatment policy to increase access to health care and reduce inequality, so as to reduce the mortality related to malaria among the under-fives. This study assessed the effect of providing free malaria treatment in the Buea health district.
methodsThis retrospective and cross sectional study was carried out in the Buea health district. Aggregated monthly data from (2008-2010) before and (2012-2014) after the implementation of free malaria treatment was compared, to assess the attributable outcomes of free treatment. A semi-structure questionnaire was also used to assess barriers faced in providing free malaria treatment services by health care workers. Data was collected using a semi-structure questionnaire and a data review summary sheet. The data was analysed using Epi-Info 7, Excel and SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) version 20.0 for Windows. All statistical tests were performed at 95% confidence interval (significance level of 0.05).
resultsIncrease utilisation of health care; as general and malaria related consultations (by 5.7% (p=0.001) witnessed an increase after the implementation of free malaria treatment services. Severe malaria hospitalisation also increased, indicating that most caregivers used the health facility when complications had already set in, which could have led to no significant reduction in mortality due to malaria among under-five children (4.4%, p=0.533).
conclusionUtilisation of health care increased; as consultation and morbidity rate increased after the implementation of free malaria treatment services. Communication strategy should therefore be strengthened so as to better disseminate information, so as to enhance the effectiveness of the program. There is the need to make a large-scale study to assess the impact of subsidized malaria treatment.
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