Factor related to delayed malaria treatment in Suratthani Province
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Abstract
The objectives of this study were to investigate the rate of delayed in seeking malaria treatment and the related factors in Suratthani province. Two hundred and seventy-six patients attending malaria clinics in Suratthani province during October 1997 to March 1998 were enrolled. Data collection was by interview.
The result showed that 51.09% of the patients received treatment within 5 days and 48.91% received treatment after 5 days. In average, patients received treatment within 6.08 days that was statistically longer than criteria set (5.5 days, p < 0.001) by the Bureau of the Vector-borne Diseases, Department of Disease Control.
Factors that were significantly correlated to the delayed seeking treatment included gender, occupation, perception of disease severity, difficulty in transportation, awareness of malaria illness, experience on malaria illness, and pretreatment.
Factors that were not significantly correlated (p > 0.05) included age, education, marriage, income, knowledge on malaria, malaria prevention, cost of transportation, cost of treatment, duration of last malaria illness, satisfaction on the service of malaria clinic and Plasmodium species.
These findings were able to apply for planning the cost effective operations for malaria treatment and disease prevention and control.
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