Fever and Its Treatment Among theMore and Less Poor in Sub-Saharan Africa

Filmer, Deon

World Bank, Washington, D.C.

关键词: ALGORITHMS;    ASSET INDEX;    AVERAGE LEVEL;    AVERAGE POVERTY;    AVERAGE YEARS OF SCHOOLING;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-2798
RP-ID  :  WPS2798

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The author empirically explores therelationship between household poverty and the incidence andtreatment of fever--as an indicator of malaria--amongchildren in Sub-Saharan Africa. He uses householdDemographic and Health Survey data collected in the 1990sfrom 22 countries in which malaria is prevalent. Theanalysis reveals a positive, but weak, association betweenreported fever and poverty. The geographic associationbecomes insignificant, however, after controlling for themother's education. There is some evidence that higherlevels of wealth in other households in the cluster in whichthe household lives are associated with lower levels ofreported fever in Eastern and Southern Africa. Poverty andthe type of care sought for an episode of fever aresignificantly associated: wealthier households aresubstantially more likely to seek care in the modern healthsector. In Central and Western Africa those from richerhouseholds are more likely to seek care from all types ofsources: government hospitals, lower-level public facilitiessuch as health clinics, as well as private sources. InEastern and Southern Africa the rich are primarily morelikely to seek care from private facilities. In both regionsthere is substantial use of private facilities--use thatincreases with wealth. Like the incidence of fever,treatment-seeking behavior is strongly associated with thelevel of wealth in the cluster in which the child lives.