Access to quality-assured artemisinin-based combination therapy and associated factors among clients of selected private drug outlets in Uganda
Access to quality-assured artemisinin-based combination therapy and associated factors among clients of selected private drug outlets in Uganda
Blog Article
Abstract Background Malaria treatment in sub-Saharan Africa is faced with challenges including unreliable supply of efficacious agents, substandard medicines coupled with high price of artemisinin-based combinations.This affects access to effective treatment increasing risk of malaria parasite resistance development and adverse drug events.This study investigated access to quality-assured artemisinin-based combination therapy (QAACT) medicines among clients of selected private drug-outlets in Uganda.Methods This was a cross sectional study where exit interviews were conducted among clients of private drug outlets in low and high malaria transmission settings in Uganda.
This study adapted the World Health Organization/Health Action International (WHO/HAI) standardized criteria.Data was collected using a validated questionnaire.Data entry screen with checks was created in Epi-data ver 4.2 software and data entered in duplicate.
Data was transferred BODY WASH LAVENDER to STATA ver 14.0 and cleaned prior to analysis.The analysis was done at 95% level of significance.Results A total of 1114 exit interviews were conducted among systematically sampled drug outlet clients.
Over half, 54.9% (611/1114) of the participants were males.Majority, 97.2% (1083/1114) purchased an artemisinin-based combination anti-malarial.
Most, 55.5% (618/1114) of the participants had a laboratory diagnosis of malaria.Majority, 77.9% (868/1114) of the Hobby Horse participants obtained anti-malarial agents without a prescription.
Less than a third, 27.7% (309/1114) of the participants obtained a QAACT.Of the participants who obtained QAACT, more than half 56.9% (173/309) reported finding the medicine expensive.
The predictors of accessing a QAACT anti-malarial among drug outlet clients include type of drug outlet visited (aPR = 0.74; 95%CI 0.6, 0.91), not obtaining full dose (3-day treatment) of ACT (aPR = 0.
49; 95%CI 0.33, 0.73), not finding the ACT expensive (aPR = 1.24; 95%CI 1.
03, 1.49), post-primary education (aPR = 1.29; 95%CI 1.07,1.
56), business occupation (aPR = 1.24; 95%CI 1.02,1.50) and not having a prescription (aPR = 0.
76; 95%CI 0.63, 0.92).Conclusion Less than a third of the private drug outlet clients obtained a QAACT for management of malaria symptoms.
Individuals who did not find artemisinin-based combinations to be expensive were more likely to obtain a QAACT anti-malarial.The Ministry of Health needs to conduct regular surveillance to monitor accessibility of QAACT anti-malarial agents under the current private sector copayment mechanism.