TABLE 1—
Assessment Tasks Performed on Ill Children Aged 2 to 59 Months Who Were Brought to an Outpatient Health Facility for an Initial Consultation in Ouémé Département, Benin
| Task | No. | % | 95% CI |
| For all children (N = 397) | |||
| Health worker “determined”a if the child | |||
| Had convulsions | 33 | 8.3 | 5.0, 11.6 |
| Was lethargic or unconscious | 389 | 98.0 | 96.7, 99.3 |
| Was unable to drink or breastfeed | 21 | 5.3 | 2.9, 7.7 |
| Vomited everything | 14 | 3.5 | 1.3, 5.8 |
| Health worker “determined”a if the child had | |||
| Cough or difficult breathing | 265 | 66.8 | 59.8, 73.7 |
| Diarrhea | 149 | 37.5 | 29.7, 45.3 |
| Fever (by history and temperature measurement) | 363 | 91.4 | 87.9, 95.0 |
| An ear problem | 39 | 9.8 | 5.7, 13.9 |
| Health worker assessed nutritional status by | |||
| Weighing the child | 155 | 39.0 | 27.6, 50.5 |
| Checking for edema of both feet | 3 | 0.8 | 0, 1.6 |
| Checking for palmar pallor | 17 | 4.3 | 1.8, 6.8 |
| For children with cough or difficult breathing (n = 206) | |||
| Health worker “determined”a duration of symptom | 54 | 26.2 | 19.8, 32.7 |
| Health worker checked 60-second respiratory rate | 0 | 0 | … |
| For children with diarrhea (n = 52) | |||
| Health worker “determined”a duration of diarrhea | 17 | 32.7 | 19.2, 46.2 |
| Health worker asked if there was blood in the stool | 11 | 21.2 | 7.9, 34.4 |
| Health worker offered the child fluid to assess thirst | 0 | 0 | … |
| Health worker pinched the skin of the abdomen | 7 | 13.5 | 2.4, 24.5 |
| For children with fever (n = 340) | |||
| Health worker “determined”a duration of the fever | 224 | 65.9 | 60.5, 71.3 |
| Health worker checked for neck stiffness | 42 | 12.4 | 5.8, 18.9 |
Note. CI = confidence interval; ellipses indicate not available (CIs were not estimated if a proportion = 0).
a”Determined” means that the health worker was exposed to the information (i.e., either the health worker asked for the information or the caregiver spontaneously offered the information or the surveyor observing the consultation could obviously tell the child had the symptom of interest).