Malaria J
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Household health care-seeking costs: experiences from a randomized, controlled trial of community-based malaria and pneumonia treatment among under-fives in eastern Uganda.
Home and community-based combined treatment of malaria and pneumonia has been promoted in Uganda since mid 2011. The combined treatment is justified given the considerable overlap between the symptoms of malaria and pneumonia among infants. There is limited evidence about the extent to which community-based care reduces healthcare-seeking costs at the household level in rural and urban settings. This paper assesses the rural-urban differences in direct and indirect costs of seeking care from formal health facilities compared to community medicine distributors (CMDs). ⋯ Time and monetary savings for seeking care from CMDs are significantly larger for rural than urban households. Thus, home and community-based treatment of child febrile illnesses is much more cost-saving for rural poor communities, who would spend more time travelling to health facilities - which time could be re-directed to productive and income-generating activities.