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Appropriateness of malaria diagnosis and treatment for fever episodes according to patient history and anti-malarial blood measurement: a cross-sectional survey from Tanzania

Overview of attention for article published in Malaria Journal, May 2018
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  • Above-average Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (64th percentile)

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Title
Appropriateness of malaria diagnosis and treatment for fever episodes according to patient history and anti-malarial blood measurement: a cross-sectional survey from Tanzania
Published in
Malaria Journal, May 2018
DOI 10.1186/s12936-018-2357-7
Pubmed ID
Authors

Joanna Gallay, Dominic Mosha, Erick Lutahakana, Festo Mazuguni, Martin Zuakulu, Laurent Arthur Decosterd, Blaise Genton, Emilie Pothin

Abstract

Monitoring the impact of case management strategies at large scale is essential to evaluate the public health benefit they confer. The use of methodologies relying on objective and standardized endpoints, such as drug levels in the blood, should be encouraged. Population drug use, diagnosis and treatment appropriateness in case of fever according to patient history and anti-malarials blood concentration was evaluated. A cross-sectional survey took place between May and August 2015 in three regions of Tanzania with different levels of malaria endemicity. Interviews were conducted and blood samples were collected by dried blood spots through household surveys for further anti-malarial measurements. Appropriate testing when individuals attended care was defined as a patient with history of fever being tested for malaria and appropriate treatment as (i) having anti-malarial in the blood if the test result was positive (ii) having anti-malarial in the blood if the person was not tested, and (iii) no anti-malarial in the blood when the test result was negative. Amongst 6391 participants included in the anti-malarial analysis, 20.8% (1330/6391) had anti-malarial drug detected in the blood. Only 28.0% (372/1330) of the individuals with anti-malarials in their blood reported the use of anti-malarials within the previous month. Amongst all participants, 16.0% (1021/6391) reported having had a fever in the previous 2 weeks and 37.5% of them (383/1021) had detectable levels of anti-malarials in the blood. Of the individuals who sought care in health facilities, 69.4% (172/248) were tested and 52.0% (129/248) appropriately treated. When other providers were sought, 6% (23/382) of the persons were appropriately tested and 44.2% (169/382) appropriately treated. Overall, the proportion of individuals treated was larger than that being tested [47.3% (298/630) treated, 31.0% (195/630) tested]. This study showed high prevalence of circulating anti-malarial drug in the sampled population. Efforts should be made to increase rapid diagnostic tests use at all levels of health care and improve compliance to test result in order to target febrile patients that are sick with malaria and reduce drug pressure. Objective drug measurements collected at community level represent a reliable tool to evaluate overall impact of case management strategies on population drug pressure.

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X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 5 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 59 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 59 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 11 19%
Researcher 11 19%
Student > Ph. D. Student 7 12%
Lecturer 4 7%
Student > Postgraduate 3 5%
Other 7 12%
Unknown 16 27%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 11 19%
Nursing and Health Professions 8 14%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 4 7%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 3 5%
Computer Science 3 5%
Other 12 20%
Unknown 18 31%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 5. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 10 January 2019.
All research outputs
#6,955,099
of 24,400,706 outputs
Outputs from Malaria Journal
#1,944
of 5,827 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#115,230
of 334,565 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Malaria Journal
#35
of 96 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 24,400,706 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 71st percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 5,827 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 7.0. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 66% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 334,565 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 65% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 96 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 64% of its contemporaries.