Abstract:

Background: Malaria is described as a social and economic problem. It is recommended by the standard guideline that malaria treatment should begin with parasitological diagnosis, then the recommended dose should begin with parasitological diagnosis, then the recommended dose should be provided to the children under supervision. This study aimed at determining the factors associated with adherence to malaria treatment guideline among care givers under five children with history of fever in Sengerema district, Mwanza.

Method: Data were generated from a community based cross-sectional study conducted among 370 primary caregivers of under five children with the history of fever two weeks prior to the interview by convenient sampling method. Data were collected using questionnaire, after checking manually the data for completeness they were entered and cleaned in the excel sheet, then transferred to SPSS 20.0 for analysis. Then the frequency, percentage and p-value were obtained.

Results/Discussion: Among caregivers of under five children with history of fever in the last two weeks prior to the interview (370), 28.1% (104) sought prompt treatment at hospital; of those that sought prompt treatment, 27.0% (100) of the total sample received a blood test; of those that received a blood test, 26.5% (98) of the total sample received ALU. Other caregivers practical home treatment first (11.9%) and others bought drugs directly in the pharmacy (38.9%). Caregivers could not seek prompt treatment at hospital due to inability to pay for the health care cost 10.8% (10), shortage of drugs at the health facility 37.3% (138), long waiting time at the facility 17.8% (66), long distance to the health facility 23.8% (88).

Conclusion: Adherence to malaria treatment guideline was still a challenge for most of the caregivers. To improve the safety and effective treatment of Malaria the caregivers should be educated on necessity of seeking prompt treatment whenever their children have fever.