Umeå University's logo

umu.sePublications
Change search
Link to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Lemma, Hailemariam
Publications (6 of 6) Show all publications
Lemma, H. (2012). Improving efficiency, access to and quality of the rural health extension programme in Tigray, Ethiopia: the case of malaria diagnosis and treatment. (Doctoral dissertation). Umeå: Umeå universitet
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Improving efficiency, access to and quality of the rural health extension programme in Tigray, Ethiopia: the case of malaria diagnosis and treatment
2012 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

Introduction: Ensuring universal access to primary health care (PHC) is a key component of the Ethiopian nationalhealth policy. The policy also emphasises promoting and enhancing national self-reliance in health development bymobilizing and efficiently utilizing resources including community participation. To this end, the government introducedthe accelerated expansion of the PHC strategy through a comprehensive health extension programme (HEP). HEP is afamily and community-based health care delivery system institutionalised at health post level which combines carefullyselected high impact promotive, preventive and basic curative interventions. All HEP interventions are promotive and preventive except the malaria intervention which, in addition, incorporates a curative service. In the country, malaria is a leading disease. Unlike most Sub-Saharan African countries where P. falciparum accounts for almost all malaria infections, in Ethiopia both P. falciparum and P. vivax are co-dominant. Considering this peculiar epidemiological nature, the national guideline recommends alternative diagnosis and treatment strategies.

Rationale: The lack of adequate resources and the efficiency with which available resources are being utilised are the main challenges in any health care setting. Therefore, if the HEP which consumes consideral amount of resource desires to reach its intended goal, monitoring and improving its efficiency is of great public heath importance. HEP has been successful in improving access to PHC including the malaria diagnosis and treatment service. Though this is a crucial measure, its quality ought to be considered. For the malaria curative service, studying the cost-effectiveness of the available strategy and patients’ adherence to the treatment regimen can be considered as proxy measures of quality for which local evidence is lacking. However, none of the existing studies in this field of research has addressed the Ethiopian malaria epidemiological context and its diagnosis and treatment guideline. In Tigray, for more than two decades, access to malaria early diagnosis and prompt treatment was facilitated by volunteer community healthworkers (CHWs). However, with the introduction of artemether-lumefantrine (AL) the service was compromised mainly for reasons of cost, safety and logistic. Therefore, it was important to explore the feasibility and the impact of community deployment of AL with rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs).

The aim: to explore the overall performance of HEP and particularly the access to and quality of malaria early diagnosis and prompt treatment in the Tigray region of Ethiopia.

Methods: Different study designs and populations were used for each of the four specific objectives. Data envelop analysis (DEA) was applied to assess the HEP efficiency. For this, register data for the output variables and primary data for the input and the environmental factors were collected. A health provider perspective cost-effectiveness analysis was used to determine which among the currently available diagnostic and treatment strategies is best for the country. Effectiveness data were generated from a stratified cross-sectional survey and secondary data were used to calculate the cost. For measuring adherence to the six-dose AL regimen, an assessment questionnaire and pill count was employed at patients´ home. To determine whether deploying AL with RDT at community level was feasible and effective, a number of designs were used: longitudinal follow-up, cross-sectional surveys, cost analysis, verbal autopsyquestionnaires and focal group discussions.

Main findings: More than three-quarters of the health posts were found to be technically inefficient with an average score of 42%, which implies potentially they could improve their efficiency by 58%. Scale of operation was not a cause of inefficiency. None of the considered environmental factors was associated with efficiency. The Parascreen-based strategy (multispecies RDT-BS) was found to be the most cost-effective strategy, which allowed treating correctly an additional 65% of patients with less cost than the paracheck-BS. Presumptive-BS was highly dominated. Among P.falciparum positive patients to whom AL was prescribed, more than a quarter did not finish their treatment. The main reasons for interrupting the dose were ‘too many tablets’ and ‘felt better before finishing the dose’. The ownership of aradio, the belief that malaria cannot be treated traditionally and a delay of more than one day in seeking treatment after the onset of fever were significantly associated with being adherent. Deploying AL with RDT at community level was demonstrated to be effective and feasible. In the intervention district, almost 60% of suspected cases were managed by CHWs. Malaria transmission was lower at least threefold and malaria mortality risk by around 40% compared to the control district. The use of RDTs reduced cost and possibly the risk of drug resistance development.

Conclusion: Though improving access to health care is important, it should be considered a means, not an end. Themore accessible a system is the more people could utilise it to improve their health. Thus, ensuring the access obtainedthrough HEP is maintained, its quality is improved and efficiently utilised to its optimal productivity level is a necessarytask. The DEA study revealed a high level of inefficiency where majority of the health posts needed improvement.This thesis also found parascreen-BS to be the most cost-effective strategy and that there is no epidemiological andeconomical contextual justification to keep both, the presumptive-BS and the RDT-BS specific only to P.falciparum.The high poor adherence levels raises great concern as it leads to recurrent malaria attacks of the patient, speed upthe development and spread of drug resistance strains and reduces the effect of the drug on the transmission. Therefore,providing effective drug alone is not sufficient; assessing and monitoring adherence to the treatment is by faressential. Deployment of AL with RDT through a community-based service has shown an enormous impact in termsof cost, transmission, morbidity and mortality. However, it is worth noting that this results came from an area wherea community-based service has been involved in the PHC system for more than three decades.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Umeå: Umeå universitet, 2012. p. 84
Series
Umeå University medical dissertations, ISSN 0346-6612 ; 1497
Keywords
Health extension programme, Malaria, Rapid diagnostic test, Acess health care, Efficiency, Cost-effectiveness, Adherence, Community health worker.
National Category
Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology
Research subject
Public health
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-54250 (URN)978-91-7459-418-8 (ISBN)
Public defence
2012-05-15, Room D, 9th floor, Dentistry building, Norrlands University Hospital, Umeå, 09:00 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2012-04-24 Created: 2012-04-20 Last updated: 2018-06-08Bibliographically approved
Lemma, H., Löfgren, C. & San Sebastian, M. (2011). Adherence to a six-dose regimen of artemether-lumefantrine among uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum patients in the Tigray Region, Ethiopia. Malaria Journal, 10, 349
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Adherence to a six-dose regimen of artemether-lumefantrine among uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum patients in the Tigray Region, Ethiopia
2011 (English)In: Malaria Journal, ISSN 1475-2875, E-ISSN 1475-2875, Vol. 10, p. 349-Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

BACKGROUND: In 2004, Ethiopia switched its first-line treatment of uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria from sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine to a fixed artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT), artemether-lumefantrine (AL). Patient adherence to AL regimen is a major determining factor to achieve the desired therapeutic outcome. The aim of this study was to measure patient adherence levels to the six-dose AL regimen for the treatment of uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria and to identify its determinant factors in rural areas of the Tigray region, Ethiopia

METHODS: The study was conducted under routine health service delivery at health posts level. Patients/caregivers were not informed about their home visit and were traced on the day after they finished the AL regimen. By combining the response to a structured questionnaire and the tablet count from the blister, adherence level was classified into three categories: definitely non-adherent, probably non-adherent and probably adherent. Reasons for being definitely non-adherent were also assessed. For the purpose of examine risk factors, definitely non-adherent and probably non-adherent was merged into a non-adherent group. Variables found significantly associated (p < 0.05) with the adherence level on the univariate analysis were fitted into a multivariate logistic regression model.

RESULTS: Out of the total initially enrolled 180 patients, 86.1% completed the follow-up. Out of these, 38.7% were classified as probably adherent, 34.8% as probably non-adherent, and 26.5% were definitely non-adherent. The most common reasons that definitely non-adherents gave for not taking the full dose were "too many tablets" (37.3%) and to "felt better before finished the treatment course" (25.5%). The adherence of the patients was associated with the ownership of a radio (adjusted odd ratio, AOR: 3.8; 95% CI: 1.66-8.75), the belief that malaria can be treated traditionally (AOR: 0.09; 95% CI: 0.01-0.78) and a delay of more than one day in seeking treatment after the onset of fever (AOR: 5.39; 95% CI: 1.83-15.88).

CONCLUSION: The very low adherence to AL found in this study raises serious concerns for the malaria control in the region. The implementation of a monitoring adherence system is essential to ensure long-term treatment efficacy.

National Category
Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-51865 (URN)10.1186/1475-2875-10-349 (DOI)22141751 (PubMedID)2-s2.0-82655183782 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2012-02-03 Created: 2012-02-03 Last updated: 2023-03-24Bibliographically approved
Lemma, H., San Sebastian, M., Löfgren, C. & Barnabas, G. (2011). Cost-effectiveness of three malaria treatment strategies in rural Tigray, Ethiopia where both Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax co-dominate. Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation, 9, 2
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Cost-effectiveness of three malaria treatment strategies in rural Tigray, Ethiopia where both Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax co-dominate
2011 (English)In: Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation, E-ISSN 1478-7547, Vol. 9, p. 2-Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

BACKGROUND: Malaria transmission in Ethiopia is unstable and the disease is a major public health problem. Both, p.falciparum (60%) and p.vivax (40%) co-dominantly exist. The national guideline recommends three different diagnosis and treatment strategies at health post level: i) the use of a p.falciparum/vivax specific RDT as diagnosis tool and to treat with artemether-lumefantrine (AL), chloroquine (CQ) or referral if the patient was diagnosed with p.falciparum, p.vivax or no malaria, respectively (parascreen pan/pf based strategy); ii) the use of a p.falciparum specific RDT and AL for p.falciparum cases and CQ for the rest (paracheck pf based strategy); and iii) the use of AL for all cases diagnosed presumptively as malaria (presumptive based strategy). This study aimed to assess the cost-effectiveness of the recommended three diagnosis and treatment strategies in the Tigray region of Ethiopia.

METHODS: The study was conducted under a routine health service delivery following the national malaria diagnosis and treatment guideline. Every suspected malaria case, who presented to a health extension worker either at a village or health post, was included. Costing, from the provider's perspective, only included diagnosis and antimalarial drugs. Effectiveness was measured by the number of correctly treated cases (CTC) and average and incremental cost-effectiveness calculated. One-way and two-way sensitivity analyses were conducted for selected parameters.

RESULTS: In total 2,422 subjects and 35 health posts were enrolled in the study. The average cost-effectiveness ratio showed that the parascreen pan/pf based strategy was more cost-effective (US$1.69/CTC) than both the paracheck pf (US$4.66/CTC) and the presumptive (US$11.08/CTC) based strategies. The incremental cost for the parascreen pan/pf based strategy was US$0.59/CTC to manage 65% more cases. The sensitivity analysis also confirmed parascreen pan/pf based strategy as the most cost-effective.

CONCLUSION: This study showed that the parascreen pan/pf based strategy should be the preferred option to be used at health post level in rural Tigray. This finding is relevant nationwide as the entire country's malaria epidemiology is similar to the study area.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
BioMed Central (BMC), 2011
National Category
Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-51867 (URN)10.1186/1478-7547-9-2 (DOI)21303500 (PubMedID)2-s2.0-79551689097 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2012-02-03 Created: 2012-02-03 Last updated: 2023-03-23Bibliographically approved
Lemma, H., Byass, P., Desta, A., Bosman, A., Costanzo, G., Toma, L., . . . Barnabas, G. A. (2010). Deploying artemether-lumefantrine with rapid testing in Ethiopian communities: impact on malaria morbidity, mortality and healthcare resources. Tropical medicine & international health, 15(2), 241-250
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Deploying artemether-lumefantrine with rapid testing in Ethiopian communities: impact on malaria morbidity, mortality and healthcare resources
Show others...
2010 (English)In: Tropical medicine & international health, ISSN 1360-2276, E-ISSN 1365-3156, Vol. 15, no 2, p. 241-250Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Objective: To assess the impact and feasibility of artemether-lumefantrine deployment at community level, combined with phased introduction of rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs), on malaria transmission, morbidity, and mortality and health service use in a remote area of Ethiopia.

Methods: Two-year pilot study in two districts: artemether-lumefantrine was prescribed after parasitological confirmation of malaria in health facilities in both districts. In the intervention district, artemether-lumefantrine was also made available through 33 community health workers (CHWs); of these, 50% were equipped with RDTs in the second year.

Results: At health facilities; 54 774 patients in the intervention and 100 535 patients in the control district were treated for malaria. In the intervention district, 75 654 patients were treated for malaria by community health workers. Use of RDTs in Year 2 excluded non-Plasmodium falciparumin 89.7% of suspected cases. During the peak of malaria transmission in 2005, the crude parasite prevalence was 7.4% (95% CI: 6.1-8.9%) in the intervention district and 20.8% (95% CI: 18.7-23.0%) in the control district. Multivariate modelling indicated no significant difference in risk of all-cause mortality between the intervention and the control districts [adjusted incidence rate ratio (aIRR) 1.03, 95%CI 0.87-1.21, P = 0.751], but risk of malaria-specific mortality was lower in the intervention district (aIRR 0.60, 95%CI 0.40-0.90, P = 0.013).

Conclusions: Artemether-lumefantrine deployment through a community-based service in a remote rural population reduced malaria transmission, lowered the malaria case burden for health facilities and reduced malaria morbidity and mortality during a 2-year period which included a major malaria epidemic.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Oxford, England: Blackwell Science, 2010
Keywords
artemether, lumefantrine, Coartem, malaria, community, rapid diagnostic testing
National Category
Occupational Health and Environmental Health
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-30546 (URN)10.1111/j.1365-3156.2009.02447.x (DOI)000273599400013 ()19961564 (PubMedID)2-s2.0-74349106430 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2010-01-08 Created: 2010-01-08 Last updated: 2023-03-24Bibliographically approved
Sebastian, M. S. & Lemma, H. (2010). Efficiency of the health extension programme in Tigray, Ethiopia: a data envelopment analysis. BMC International Health and Human Rights, 10, 16
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Efficiency of the health extension programme in Tigray, Ethiopia: a data envelopment analysis
2010 (English)In: BMC International Health and Human Rights, E-ISSN 1472-698X, Vol. 10, p. 16-Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

There is a need to review the management of the health information system in the region. The findings have also revealed that only a quarter of the health posts are working efficiently and pointed the need for improvement. A closer monitoring of the health extension programme is required in order to achieve the best possible performance.

National Category
Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-39866 (URN)10.1186/1472-698X-10-16 (DOI)000289981100001 ()20546597 (PubMedID)2-s2.0-77954174182 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2011-02-10 Created: 2011-02-10 Last updated: 2024-01-17Bibliographically approved
Paulander, J., Olsson, H., Lemma, H., Getachew, A. & San Sebastian, M. (2009). Knowledge, attitudes and practice about malaria in rural Tigray, Ethiopia. Global Health Action, 2
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Knowledge, attitudes and practice about malaria in rural Tigray, Ethiopia
Show others...
2009 (English)In: Global Health Action, ISSN 1654-9716, E-ISSN 1654-9880, Vol. 2Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Objective: To assess the knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) regarding malaria and their determinants in a rural population of northern Ethiopia.

Methods: The study was conducted in the district of Samre Saharti, Tigray, northern Ethiopia. A structured questionnaire collecting socio-demographic and malaria-related KAP information was administered to the mothers from a representative sample of households.

Results: A total of 1652 questionnaires were available for analysis. Most of the respondents (92.7%) were able to mention at least one symptom of malaria. Mosquito as a cause of malaria was recognized by nearly half of the respondents (48.8%). Most of the households had a bednet (85.9%). To have a literate person at home, to belong to the lowland stratum, to have received some type of health education and to own a radio were associated with the knowledge of malaria. A strong association remained between living in the lowland stratum, to own a radio and to live close to the health post and the use of ITN. Being a housewife, lack of health education and to live further than 60 minutes walking distance to the health post were related to a delay on treatment finding.

Conclusion: This study has identified some aspects which the MCP might need to improve. The knowledge about malaria transmission should be strengthened. Promotion of literacy and participation in health education are vital components in terms of malaria knowledge and practice. Issues related to geographical location and accessibility to health post should be also carefully examined.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Co-Action Publishing, 2009
Keywords
malaria, knowledge, attitude, practice, Tigray, Ethiopia
National Category
Occupational Health and Environmental Health
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-21840 (URN)10.3402/gha.v2i0.1839 (DOI)000208160000004 ()2-s2.0-84857780689 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2009-04-20 Created: 2009-04-20 Last updated: 2023-03-09Bibliographically approved
Organisations

Search in DiVA

Show all publications