Modeling the household cost of pediatric malaria treatment in a rural county in Kenya; do non-user fee payments matter? A partial cost of illness analysis

Objective: The objective of this study was to develop an econometric model for the cost of treatment of pediatric malaria from a patient perspective in a resource scarce rural setting of Homa-Bay County, Kenya. We sought to investigate the main contributors as well as the contribution of non-user fee payments to the total household cost of care. Costs were measured from a patient perspective.

Design: The study was conducted as a health facility based cross sectional survey targeting paediatric patients.

Setting: The study was conducted in 13 health facilities ranging from level II to level V in Homa

Bay County which is in the Eastern shores of Lake Victoria, Kenya. This is a malaria endemic area.

Participants: We enrolled 254 inpatient children (139 males and 115 females) all of whom participated up to the end of this study.

Primary outcome measure: The primary outcome measure was the cost of pediatric malaria care borne by the patient. This was measured by asking exitin...