Table 1.
Health facility and patient characteristics in malaria rapid diagnostic test (RDT) evaluation in Blantyre, Malawi, 2009
| RDT name | Bioline SD | First response malaria | ICT diagnostics | Paracheck | Total | P value* | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Health centre name | Mdeka (N = 476) | Lilangwe (N = 508) | Chileka (N = 683) | Bangwe (N = 573) | Mdeka (N = 333) | (N = 2,573) | |
| Health facility characteristics | |||||||
| Location | Rural | Rural | Semi-urban | Urban | Rural | ||
| Person performing RDT | CHW‡ | CHW‡ | Laboratory Technician | Laboratory Technician | CHW‡ | ||
| Patient characteristics | |||||||
| Female | 59% | 60% | 59% | 56% | 65% | 59% | 0.13 |
| Child 5-15 years old | 44% | 56% | 37% | 36% | 30% | 42% | < 0.001 |
| Owns a mosquito net Used a mosquito net the previous night |
54% 50% |
62% 63% |
51% 48% |
43% 41% |
58% 61% |
53% 52% |
< 0.001 < 0.001 |
| Self treated with antimalarial in past 2 weeks | 8% | 5% | 29% | 8% | 2% | 12% | < 0.001 |
| Presumptive malaria diagnosis | 100% | 99% | 27% | 92% | 100% | 89% | < 0.001 |
| Local microscopy positive† | na | na | 69% | 29% | na | 51% | < 0.001 |
| RDT positive | 76% | 72% | 53% | 25% | 66% | 56% | < 0.001 |
| Expert microscopy positive | 41% | 40% | 16% | 3% | 34% | 25% | < 0.001 |
* Statistical testing using chi square test for trend
† Local microscopy available only in Chileka and Bangwe Health Centres
‡ CHW = Community health worker