Open AccessTreatment seeking behaviour and prevalence of treatment delay among malaria patients along Thailand-Myanmar border in Tak province
Author(s) -
Krit Sonkong,
Pornnapa Suggaravetsiri,
Sunisa Chaiklieng
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
asian pacific journal of tropical disease
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.208
H-Index - 33
ISSN - 2222-1808
DOI - 10.1016/s2222-1808(14)60783-0
Subject(s) - malaria , medicine , public health , ethnic group , cross sectional study , tribe , demography , pediatrics , immunology , nursing , pathology , sociology , anthropology
Objective: To investigate treatment seeking behaviour and the prevalence of treatment delay of\udmalaria patients.\udMethods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with malaria patients along the ThailandMyanmar border in Tak province, Thailand.\udResults: Most of patients (70.0%) were treated for fever before receiving treatment at a\udmalaria clinic or public hospital. The sources of initial treatments were self-treatment (64.0%),\udmalaria clinics (20.0%), public hospital (11.0%), sub-district health promotion hospital (3.3%),\udand malaria posts (1.1%). Prevalence of patients delayed more than one day after onset of\udsymptoms was 79.4%, but doctor delay of more than one day occurred in only 1.3%. The\udprevalence of treatment delay (total delay) of more than one day was 79.6%. Patient delay\udand treatment delay were found to be significantly higher among hill tribe than Thai subjects\ud(P=0.004 and 0.003, respectively) but, there was no significant association between ethnicity\udand doctor delay (P=0.669).\udConclusion: Patient delay in seeking treatment is a major problem along the ThailandMyanmar border in Tak province, especially in hill tribe people. Self-treatment accounted for\udmost of initial treatment sought by patients