PA-466 Factors associated with coverage of three doses of intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in infants with Sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine: a cross-sectional community-based survey in Sierra Leone

• Published in: BMJ global health Vol. 8; no. Suppl 10; p. A87
• Main Authors: Fombah, Augustin E, Chen, Haily, Owusu-Kyei, Kwabena, Quinto, Llorenç, Gonzalez, Raquel, Williams, Julian, Berne, Mireia LLach, Wassenaar, Myrte, Jalloh, Abubakarr, Sunders, Joe-Henry C, Ramirez, Maximo, Bertran-Cobo, Cesc, Saute, Francisco, Ekouevi, Didier K, Briand, Valérie, Kamara, Anitta RY, Sesay, Tom, Samai, Mohamed, Menendez, Clara
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London BMJ Publishing Group Ltd 17.12.2023; BMJ Publishing Group LTD
• Subjects: Abstracts of Poster and e-Poster Presentations; Antiparasitic agents; Babies; Disease prevention; Malaria; Sierra Leone
• ISSN: 2059-7908
• DOI: 10.1136/bmjgh-2023-EDC.212

BackgroundIntermittent Preventive Treatment of malaria in infants (IPTi) is a malaria control strategy consisting of the administration of sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine alongside routine immunizations. IPTi has been renamed as Perennial Malaria Chemoprevention (PMC), accounting for its recently recommended expansion into the second year of life. Before starting a pilot implementation on PMC, the currently implemented strategy was assessed in children in selected areas of Sierra Leone. MethodsA cross-sectional, community-based, multi-stage cluster survey was conducted in 2021 in three districts in Northern and northwestern provinces of Sierra Leone among 10- 23 months old children. IPTi coverage was calculated using percentages and 95% confidence intervals weighted for the sampling design and adjusted for non-response within clusters. Factors associated with iPTi coverage including malaria RDT were assessed.ResultsA total of 720 children were recruited. Coverage of three IPTi doses was 50.57% (368/707; 95% CI 45.38 – 55.75). Adjusted for all other studied covariates, older children (OR per month increase 1.07, 95% CI 1.02–1.11, P-value 0.0056), those who slept under a mosquito net the previous night (OR 1.76, 95% CI 1.22–2.53, P-value 0.0029) and those whose caretaker was paid-employed (OR 2.74, 95%CI 1.11, 6.74, P-value 0.0290) were more likely to have received the complete three IPTi doses. Children whose caretakers were males (OR 0.50, 95% CI 0.28–0.91, P-value 0.0251), residing in Port Loko district (OR 0.40, 95% CI 0.19–0.87, P-value 0.0212) and those with a positive RDT result (OR 0.57, 95% CI 0.39–0.82, P-value 0.0035), were less likely to have received complete three doses of IPTi. ConclusionIn this survey, IPTi coverage was around 50%. A positive health behaviour possibly explains the association with use of mosquito nets. This implies that positive health behaviour messaging is key in improving coverage of IPTi, a key malaria prevention strategy.