Onwujekwe Obinna, Dike Nkem, Uzochukwu Benjamin
Health Policy Research Unit, Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria Enugu-Campus, Enugu, Nigeria.
Trop Doct. 2005 Oct;35(4):224-5. doi: 10.1258/004947505774938792.
This paper, using focus group discussions and questionnaires in Enugu State, Southeast Nigeria, examines the implications of consumer malaria perceptions and behaviour for measuring the disease burden and improving its treatment. The results show that, because peoples' understanding of the disease was related to its symptoms, this could lead to overestimation of the economic burden of malaria, based only on surveys without diagnostic confirmation. Survey-based estimations of the burden of malaria should control for the different local terminologies of malaria, and health personnel should be aware of these in order to improve the appropriate use of antimalarial drugs in presumptive treatment of malaria.
本文采用焦点小组讨论和问卷调查的方式，对尼日利亚东南部埃努古州的消费者对疟疾的认知和行为进行了研究，探讨了这些因素对衡量疟疾疾病负担及改善治疗效果的影响。结果表明，由于人们对该疾病的认知与症状相关，仅基于未经诊断确认的调查可能会导致对疟疾经济负担的高估。基于调查的疟疾负担估计应考虑到疟疾在当地的不同称谓，卫生人员也应了解这些情况，以便在疟疾推定治疗中更合理地使用抗疟药物。
