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A Trial of Improved Financial Access to Healthcare in Ghana

NCT00146692 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: PHASE4 · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 2000

Last updated 2017-01-12

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Effective control strategies for malaria depend both on preventing disease and on treating those who become infected to prevent significant morbidity and mortality. There are many barriers to preventing access to prompt and effective treatment, some of which are amenable to intervention, others (such as distance to healthcare) less so. This study will concentrate on modifiable financial barriers to care.

With the aim of increasing health service utilization and reducing morbidity and mortality among children under five, some governments are currently implementing policies aimed at reducing financial barriers to health care. There is at the same time an on-going debate concerning the relative importance of cost as a barrier to health care. Though theoretically the aim for reducing these barriers should be achieved, its actual impact has not been directly assessed or demonstrated by means of an intervention trial.

This study aims to determine by means of a randomized trial the impact of reducing such barriers on morbidity due to severe malaria among children 6 months to five years and on outpatient utilization. An existing pre-payment scheme in the study area will be utilized to improve financial access for half of 2500 households who have not registered for either year I or II. The impact on severe anaemia, mean haemoglobin and anthropometric measurements will be assessed. Health service utilisation rates will be measured in both groups by active and passive surveillance. Patient perceptions and health-seeking behaviour will be compared. The study will contribute to the current debate on the relative importance of cost of care as a barrier to health care and the potential for the removal of this barrier as a strategy for malaria control, and on methods to optimise this.

Conditions

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Free medical treatment

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Dangme West Health District, Ghana

    collaborator UNKNOWN

  • London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Evelyn Ansah, MD · Dangme West / LSHTM

  • Christopher Whitty, FRCP · London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
6 Months
Max Age
5 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2004-04-30
Completion
2005-02-28

Countries

  • Ghana

Study Locations

More Related Trials

Entities

Diseases

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT00146692 on ClinicalTrials.gov