| Title |
Prescription practices for malaria in Mozambique: poor adherence to the national protocols for malaria treatment in 22 public health facilities
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Malaria Journal, December 2015
|
| DOI | 10.1186/s12936-015-0996-5 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Cristolde A. Salomão, Jahit Sacarlal, Baltazar Chilundo, Eduardo Samo Gudo |
| Abstract |
Current World Health Organization and national protocols recommend the 'test and treat' strategy for the management of uncomplicated malaria, to reduce over prescription of artemisinin-based combination treatment (ACT). Therefore, adherence to these protocols varies in different sub-Saharan African countries and no information is available for Mozambique. This study was conducted with the aim to evaluate the prescription practices of ACT in Mozambique. Retrospective audit of medical records corresponding to the period between July and December 2011 was conducted in 22 health units across 11 provinces in Mozambique. Two health units were selected per province according to availability of laboratory data (performing microscopy and rapid diagnostics testing-RDT or RDT only) and geographic setting (rural versus urban). At each facility, demographic data, laboratory results (blood smear or RDT), and prescription of ACT were all collected from the existing records. Between July and December 2011, a total of 61,730 cases were tested for malaria, of which 42.7 % (26,369/61,730) were positive. A total of 35.361 patients were malaria negative, and ACT was prescribed to 72.0 % (25.448/35.361) of them. Prescription of ACT to malaria negative patients was higher in the central region of the country as compared to the northern and southern (81.1 % in the central region versus 72.4 and 63.7 % in the northern and southern, respectively, p = 0.000) and in urban settings (88.7 % in rural versus 58.0 % in urban settings, p = 0.000). Stock out of RDT was observed in six (27.3 %) of the health facilities. When no RDT was available, patients were empirically treated with ACT. Findings from this study demonstrate that health care worker's adherence to the new guidelines for malaria treatment is poor in Mozambique and prescription of ACT to malaria negative patients remains very high. Enhanced training and supervision activities, community education and external quality assurance might lead to significant improvements in the clinician's adherence to the new guideline for malaria treatment in Mozambique. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 4 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Mozambique | 2 | 50% |
| Unknown | 2 | 50% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 4 | 100% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 133 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Unknown | 133 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Master | 34 | 26% |
| Researcher | 21 | 16% |
| Student > Bachelor | 11 | 8% |
| Student > Postgraduate | 10 | 8% |
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 8 | 6% |
| Other | 19 | 14% |
| Unknown | 30 | 23% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Medicine and Dentistry | 43 | 32% |
| Nursing and Health Professions | 17 | 13% |
| Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science | 9 | 7% |
| Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 8 | 6% |
| Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 3 | 2% |
| Other | 17 | 13% |
| Unknown | 36 | 27% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 7. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 17 November 2019.
All research outputs
#5,034,714
of 24,400,706 outputs
Outputs from Malaria Journal
#1,277
of 5,827 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#80,419
of 396,891 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Malaria Journal
#25
of 147 outputs
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We're also able to compare this research output to 147 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 83% of its contemporaries.