Observational studyMalaria journal2021
Evaluation of direct costs associated with the management of clinical stage of malaria in children under five years old in Gabon.
Observational study in Malaria journal, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 2 of them syntheses 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.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The economic burden of malaria in Africa: a systematic review of cost of illness studies.Malaria journal · 2025Pooled it
- Cost of treating severe malaria in children in Africa: a systematic literature review.Malaria journal · 2024Pooled it
- Linking health literacy to malaria prevention and treatment behaviours: evidence from a community-based study in Gabon.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- Bayesian spatio-temporal analysis of malaria prevalence in children between 2 and 10 years of age in Gabon.Malaria journal · 2024Article
- Mixture modeling of hospital charge in Zimbabwe.Heliyon · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMalaria is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in African countries. It is one of the leading causes of hospital visits and hospitalization in pediatric wards for children under 5 years old. Interestingly however, the economic burden of this disease remains unknown in these endemic countries including Gabon. The purpose of this study is to assess the direct hospital cost for the management of malaria in children under 5 years old at the Libreville University Hospital Centre (CHUL, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Libreville) in Gabon.
methodsThis research work is a retrospective study using a comprehensive review of medical records of patients seen at the CHUL over a two-year period extending from January 2018 through December 2019. The study focused on children under 5 years old, admitted for malaria in the paediatric ward of the CHUL. The analysis targeted specifically direct hospital costs, which excluded salary and wages of health care workers. The monetary currency used in this study was the CFA francs, as that currency is the one used in Central Africa (as reference, 1 Euro = 656 CFA francs).
resultsFor the set timeframe, 778 patient records matched the study criteria. Thus, out of 778 admitted patients, 58.4% were male while 41.5% were female. Overall, the average age was 13.2 months (± 13.8 months). The total cost incurred by the hospital for the management of these 778 malaria patients was 94,922,925 CFA francs (144,699.58 €), for an average expense per patient topping at 122,008 CFA francs (185.99 €). The highest expenditure items were hospitalizations (44,200,000 CFA francs, 67,378.1 €), followed by drugs (26,394,425 CFA francs, 40,235.4 €) and biomedical examinations (14,036,000 CFA francs, 21,396.34 €).
conclusionThe financial burden for managing malaria in the paediatric ward seems to be very high, not only for the hospital, but also for families in spite of the government medical insurance coverage in some cases. These findings bring new insights as to the urgency to develop policies that foster preventive initiatives over curative approaches in the management of malaria in children in endemic countries.
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