ArticleBMJ open2021
Health-seeking behaviour and cost of fever treatment to households in a malaria-endemic setting of northern Ghana: a cross-sectional study.
Article in BMJ open, 2021. 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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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Delay in malaria care-seeking for children under five in Africa: a systematic review.Malaria journal · 2026Pooled it
- Malaria control in Northern Ghana: a scoping review.Malaria journal · 2025Article
- Economic burden of hypertension to outpatients attending the Ho Teaching Hospital in the Volta Region of Ghana: a cross-sectional study.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Equity effect of a community-based primary healthcare program on the incidence of childhood morbidity in rural Northern Ghana.Primary health care research & development · 2025Article
- Healthcare-seeking behaviour of fever cases in Magude district, southern Mozambique: A qualitative study.PloS one · 2025Article
- Plasmodium Falciparum and mosquito vector IgG patterns across suspected malaria cases in Ghana.BMC infectious diseases · 2024Article
- Article
- Prevalence of malaria infection and the impact of mosquito bed net distribution among children aged 6-59 months in Ghana: Evidence from the Ghana demographic health and malarial indicator surveys.Parasite epidemiology and control · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesTo examine the health-seeking behaviour and cost of fever treatment to households in Ghana.
designCross-sectional household survey conducted between July and September 2015.
settingKassena-Nankana East and West districts in Upper East region of Ghana.
participantsIndividuals with an episode of fever in the 2 weeks preceding a visit during routine health and demographic surveillance system data collection were selected for the study. Sociodemographic characteristics, treatment-seeking behaviours and cost of treatment of fever were obtained from the respondents.
resultsOut of 1845 households visited, 21% (393 of 1845) reported an episode of fever. About 50% (195 of 393) of the fever cases had blood sample taken for testing by microscopy or Rapid Diagnostic Test, and 73.3% (143 of 195) were confirmed to have malaria. Of the 393 people with fever, 70% (271 of 393) reported taking an antimalarial and 24.0% (65 of 271) took antimalarial within 24 hours of the onset of illness. About 54% (145 of 271) of the antimalarials were obtained from health facilities.The average cost (direct and indirect) incurred by households per fever treatment was GH¢27.8/US$7.3 (range: GH¢0.2/US$0.1-GH¢200/US$52.6). This cost is 4.6 times the daily minimum wage of unskilled paid jobs of Ghanaians (US$1.6). The average cost incurred by those enrolled into the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) was GH¢24.8/US$6.5, and GH¢50/US$11.6 for those not enrolled.
conclusionsPrompt treatment within 24 hours of onset of fever was low (24%) compared with the Roll Back Malaria Programme target of at least 80%. Cost of treatment was relatively high when compared with average earnings of households in Ghana and enrolment into the NHIS reduced the cost of fever treatment remarkably. It is important to improve access to malaria diagnosis, antimalarials and enrolment into the NHIS in order to improve the case management of fever/malaria and accelerate universal health coverage in Ghana.
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