Prevalence of Malaria and Treatment Seeking Behaviours among Pregnant Women in Postconflict Internally Displaced Persons' Camps in Gulu District

Abstract EN

Background.

Malaria is a serious health problem that contributes greatly to morbidity and mortality in Uganda.

It mainly affects pregnant women and children under 5 years of age.

Malaria accounts for 9–14% of inpatient deaths in public and private not-for-profit health facilities in Uganda.

Methods.

A cross-sectional study using quantitative data collection technique was carried out in Gulu district IDP camps.

Proportion to size cluster sampling method was used to determine the numbers of pregnant women to be interviewed per IDP camp.

We interviewed 769 pregnant women from 20 IDP camps using consecutive sampling methods by moving to the next nearest household.

Results.

372(49%) of respondents indicated that they had suffered from malaria in the past two months.

348(94%) respondents got treatment for malaria.

299(86%) sought treatment from a health facility, 35 (10%) sought treatment from clinic, and 14(4%) sought treatment from drug shops.

Factors associated with treatment seeking were experience of miscarriage (χ2=3.87, P value =0.049) and antenatal visit (χ2=4.71, P value =0.029).

Conclusion.

The prevalence of malaria was high among the respondents at about half.

Majority of the respondents sought treatment from health facilities while a few of them sought treatment for malaria from clinic and drug shop.

Pregnant women should be advised to seek treatment whenever they have malaria from health facility to ensure that the treatment given is appropriate.