Treatment choices for fevers in children under-five years in a rural Ghanaian district

The study uses data from a 2006 household socio-economic survey and health and demographic surveillance covering caregivers of 529 children under-five years of age in the Dangme West District and applies a multinomial probit technique to model the choice of treatment services for fevers in under-fives in rural Ghana. Four health care options are considered: self-medication, over-the-counter providers, public providers and private providers.The findings indicate that longer travel, waiting and treatment times encourage people to use self-medication and over-the-counter providers compared to public and private providers. Caregivers with health insurance coverage also use care from public providers compared to over-the-counter or private providers. Caregivers with higher incomes use public and private providers over self-medication while higher treatment charges and longer times at public facilities encourage caregivers to resort to private providers. Besides, caregivers of female under-fives use self-care while caregivers of male under-fives use public providers instead of self-care, implying gender disparity in the choice of treatment.The results of this study imply that efforts at curbing under-five mortality due to malaria and pneumonia need to take into account care-seeking behaviour of caregivers of under-fives as well as implementation of strategies.Malaria and pneumonia are a major cause of under-five morbidity and mortality worldwide. Both diseases share many characteristics, including fever and signs of severe illness, such as inability to eat, convulsions and difficult breathing. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), malaria is prevalent in more than 100 countries worldwide and about 1.2 billion people representing 20% of the world's population are at high risk of malaria, with 49% of this population living in Africa [1]. In 2006, 91% of the world's 881,000 malaria deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).Malaria and pneumonia are both leading