| dc.description.abstract | Introduction: This study aimed at assessing the levels of adherence to laboratory test results in
the management of malaria in KCCA health centers in Kampala City, Uganda. This was on the
basis of the facts that the prescription practices of health workers in malaria management
investigated in earlier studies appeared not to have changed despite the various strategies on
dissemination exercise of these guidelines and policy by Uganda MoH.
Objectives: The study had three specific objectives; To determine the level of adherence by
health workers to laboratory test results in the management of malaria, to identify health worker
factors affecting adherence to laboratory test results in the management of malaria, and to
identify the health facility factors affecting adherence to laboratory test results in the
management of malaria in KCCA health centers in Kampala City, Uganda.
Methodology: Cross-sectional survey design was adopted for this study. Secondary data was
collected using documents review from outpatient’s records, laboratory test for malaria and Acts
prescription records for the month of June, July and August, 2015 to establish level of adherence
in the health centers. Primary data was collected using self-administered questionnaires, focus
group discussions and key informant interviews to establish other factors affecting adherence to
laboratory test results in the management of malaria following the WHO/ MoH policy
guidelines. Data was analyzed using Epi-data and SPSS which was presented using descriptive
statistics of frequencies and percentages. The chi-square test was used as bivariate analysis to
test the level of association between the variables of the study while logistic regression was used
as multivariate analysis to determine the influence of the independent variables on the dependent
variable.
Findings: Documents reviewed from the health centers revealed low levels of adherence to
laboratory test results in the management of malaria during the months of June, July and August,
2015. Findings from this study revealed that of the 15,169 patients treated with ACTs in the
health centers, up to 13,309(87.7%) were either malaria negative or not tested. The level of
compliance to WHO/UNMCP malaria treatment guidelines was only 12.3% which is very low.
There is significant association between; Awareness of the policy (χ2 = 7.759, p = 0.008, and
AOR = 4.307), Health worker attitudes (χ2 = 9.041, p = 0.029 and AOR = 0.415) and Results
delivery time (χ2 = 13.650, p = 0.000 and AOR = 6.884) on the dependent variable.
Conclusion and Recommendations: The study revealed that adherence to laboratory test results
in the management of malaria in KCCA health centers, Kampala City as generally low.
Therefore MoH and KCCA should plan new strategies that should be used to ensure policy
implementation in order to achieve the benefit of adherence to laboratory test results in the
management of malaria as recommended by WHO. | en_US |
