Receipt of seasonal malaria chemoprevention by age-ineligible children and associated factors in nine implementation states in Nigeria
Abstract Background As part of implementation quality standards, community distributors are expected to ensure that only age-eligible children (aged 3–59 months) receive seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) medicines during monthly campaigns. There is uncertainty about the extent to which SMC medi...
| Published in: | Malaria Journal |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
BMC
2024
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-024-04916-z https://doaj.org/article/a688c5191d2e471fa0bec11d732c1fb1 |
| Summary: | Abstract Background As part of implementation quality standards, community distributors are expected to ensure that only age-eligible children (aged 3–59 months) receive seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) medicines during monthly campaigns. There is uncertainty about the extent to which SMC medicines are administered to ineligible children. This study aimed to assess the magnitude of this occurrence, while exploring the factors associated with it across nine states where SMC was delivered in Nigeria during the 2022 round. Methods This analysis was based on data from representative end-of-round SMC household surveys conducted in nine SMC-implementing states in Nigeria. Data of 3299 age-ineligible children aged > 5 years and their caregivers were extracted from the survey dataset. Prevalence of receipt of SMC medicines by ineligible children was described by child-, caregiver- and SMC-related factors. Mixed-effects multivariable logistic regression models were fitted to explore the factors associated with ineligible receipt of SMC medicines. Results 30.30% (95% CI 27.80–32.90) of ineligible children sampled received at least one dose of SMC medicines in 2022, the majority (60.60%) of whom were aged 5–6 years while the rest were aged 7–10 years. There were lower odds of an age-ineligible child receiving SMC medicines among caregivers who were knowledgeable of SMC age eligibility (OR: 0.53, 95% CI 0.37–0.77, p < 0.001), compared with those who were not knowledgeable of age eligibility. Higher odds of receipt of SMC were found among age-ineligible children whose caregivers had higher confidence in the protective effect of SMC against malaria (OR: 2.01, 95% CI 1.07–3.72, p = 0.030), compared with those whose caregivers were less confident. Compared with ineligible children of younger caregivers (aged < 20 years), those whose caregivers were older had lower odds of receiving SMC than those whose caregivers were younger; with lower odds among children of caregivers aged 20–39 years (OR: 0.50, 95% CI ... |
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