SummaryBackgroundHealth workers' malaria case-management practices often differ from national guidelines. We assessed whether text-message reminders sent to health workers' mobile phones could improve and maintain their adherence to treatment guidelines for outpatient paediatric malaria in Kenya.MethodsFrom March 6, 2009, to May 31, 2010, we did a cluster-randomised controlled trial at 107 rural health facilities in 11 districts in coastal and western Kenya. With a computer-generated sequence, health facilities were randomly allocated to either the intervention group, in which all health workers received text messages on their personal mobile phones on malaria case-management for 6 months, or the control group, in which health workers did not receive any text messages. Health workers were not masked to the intervention, although patients were unaware of whether they were in an intervention or control facility. The primary outcome was correct management with artemether-lumefantrine, defined as a dichotomous composite indicator of treatment, dispensing, and counselling tasks concordant with Kenyan national guidelines. The primary analysis was by intention to treat. The trial is registered with Current Controlled Trials, ISRCTN72328636.Findings119 health workers received the intervention. Case-management practices were assessed for 2269 children who needed treatment (1157 in the intervention group and 1112 in the control group). Intention-to-treat analysis showed that correct artemether-lumefantrine management improved by 23·7 percentage-points (95% CI 7·6–40·0; p=0·004) immediately after intervention and by 24·5 percentage-points (8·1–41·0; p=0·003) 6 months later.InterpretationIn resource-limited settings, malaria control programmes should consider use of text messaging to improve health workers' case-management practices.FundingThe Wellcome Trust.
Context Improving the accuracy of malaria diagnosis using rapid diagnostic tests (RDT) has been proposed as an approach for reducing over-treatment of malaria in the current era of widespread implementation of artemisinin-based combination therapy in sub-Saharan Africa. Objective To assess the impact of microscopy and RDT use on prescription of antimalarials. Design, Setting, and Participants Cross-sectional, cluster sample survey of all sick outpatients seen at a health facility during one working day that included all public and mission health facilities in four sentinel districts in Zambia. Main Outcome Measures Proportions of patients undergoing malaria diagnostic procedures and receiving anti-malarial treatment. Results 17% of the 104 health facilities surveyed had functional microscopy, 63% had RDTs available, and 73% had at least one type of malaria diagnostics. 27.8% of subjects with fever (suspected malaria) seen in health facilities with malaria diagnostics were tested and 44.6% were positive. 58.4% of patients with negative blood smears were prescribed an antimalarial as were 35.5% of those with a negative RDT result. 65.9% of the subjects with fever who did not have diagnostic tests done were also prescribed antimalarials. In facilities with artemether-lumefantrine in stock, this antimalarial was prescribed to a larger proportion of febrile patients with a positive diagnostic test (blood smear 75.0%; RDT 70.4%) than those with a negative diagnostic test (blood smear 30.4%; RDT 26.7%). Conclusion Despite efforts to scale up the provision of malaria diagnostics in Zambia they continue to be under-utilized and patients with negative test results frequently receive antimalarials. The provision of new tools to reduce the inappropriate use of new expensive antimalarial treatments must be accompanied by a paradigm shift in clinical management of patients without evidence of malaria infection.
BackgroundChange of Kenyan treatment policy for uncomplicated malaria from sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine to artemether-lumefantrine (AL) was accompanied by revised recommendations promoting presumptive malaria diagnosis in young children and, wherever possible, parasitological diagnosis and adherence to test results in older children and adults. Three years after the policy implementation, health workers' adherence to malaria diagnosis and treatment recommendations was evaluated.MethodsA national cross-sectional, cluster sample survey was undertaken at public health facilities. Data were collected using quality-of-care assessment methods. Analysis was restricted to facilities with AL in stock. Main outcomes were diagnosis and treatment practices for febrile outpatients stratified by age, availability of diagnostics, use of malaria diagnostic tests, and test result.ResultsThe analysis included 1,096 febrile patients (567 aged <5 years and 529 aged ≥5 years) at 88 facilities with malaria diagnostics, and 880 febrile patients (407 aged <5 years and 473 aged ≥5 years) at 71 facilities without malaria diagnostic capacity. At all facilities, 19.8% of young children and 28.7% of patients aged ≥5 years were tested, while at facilities with diagnostics, 33.5% and 53.7% were respectively tested in each age group. Overall, AL was prescribed for 63.6% of children aged <5 years and for 65.0% of patients aged ≥5 years, while amodiaquine or sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine monotherapies were prescribed for only 2.0% of children and 3.9% of older children and adults. In children aged <5 years, AL was prescribed for 74.7% of test positive, 40.4% of test negative and 60.7% of patients without test performed. In patients aged ≥5 years, AL was prescribed for 86.7% of test positive, 32.8% of test negative and 58.0% of patients without test performed. At least one anti-malarial treatment was prescribed for 56.6% of children and 50.4% of patients aged ≥5 years with a negative test result.ConclusionsOverall, malaria testing rates were low and, despite different age-specific recommendations, only moderate differences in testing rates between the two age groups were observed at facilities with available diagnostics. In both age groups, AL use prevailed, and prior ineffective anti-malarial treatments were nearly non-existent. The large majority of test positive patients were treated with recommended AL; however, anti-malarial treatments for test negative patients were widespread, with AL being the dominant choice. Recent change of diagnostic policy to universal testing in Kenya is an opportunity to improve upon the quality of malaria case management. This will be, however, dependent upon the delivery of a comprehensive case management package including large scale deployment of diagnostics, good quality of training, post-training follow-up, structured supervisory visits, and more intense monitoring.
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