Table 4.
Primary and secondary outcomes
| Adherence to clinical assessment | Baseline | Control arm | Intervention arm | Cluster-level mean difference between arms | P-value* | |||||||||
| N | % | 95%CI | N | % | 95%CI | N | % | 95%CI | ||||||
| Overall adherence (13 to 33 tasks) | 686 | 48.0 | 44.3 | 51.6 | 1343 | 54.3 | 50.6 | 58.0 | 695 | 79.3 | 72.7 | 85.9 | 29.9 | 0.002 |
| Adherence to danger signs’ assessment (3 tasks) | 686 | 18.4 | 12.0 | 24.9 | 1343 | 34.2 | 25.5 | 42.9 | 695 | 95.2 | 90.0 | 99.9 | 71.2 | 0.002 |
| Identification of at least one danger sign (proportion of children correctly identified with at least one danger sign) | Baseline | Control arm | Intervention arm | Individual-level difference between arms | P-value** | |||||||||
| Na | % | 95%CI | Na | % | 95%CI | Na | % | 95%CI | ||||||
| 24 | 66.7 | 47.2 | 81.7 | 25 | 56.0 | 30.8 | 78.4 | 16 | 75.0 | 50.5 | 89.8 | 19.0 | 0.322 | |
| Overall correct classification (proportion of children correctly classified with x given classifications) | Baseline | Control arm | Intervention arm | Cluster-level mean difference between arms | P-value* | |||||||||
| Nb | % | 95%CI | Nb | % | 95%CI | Nb | % | 95%CI | ||||||
| Accounting for the severity of classifications | 609 | 70.6 | 63.7 | 76.7 | 1049 | 69.8 | 66.0 | 73.4 | 572 | 74.7 | 66.9 | 81.1 | 9.1 | 0.038 |
| Ignoring the severity of the classifications | 609 | 75.0 | 68.0 | 81.0 | 1049 | 73.1 | 68.8 | 77.0 | 572 | 78.7 | 72.9 | 83.5 | 10.1 | 0.004 |
| Overall correct prescription (proportion of children who received at least all the recommended prescriptions) | Baseline | Control arm | Intervention arm | Cluster-level mean difference between arms | P-value* | |||||||||
| Nc | % | 95%CI | Nc | % | 95%CI | Nc | % | 95%CI | ||||||
| According to the HCWs’ classifications | 614 | 75.7 | 68.0 | 82.1 | 1074 | 77.8 | 72.5 | 82.4 | 567 | 77.1 | 71.6 | 81.8 | −1.1 | 0.788 |
| According to the validation nurses’ classifications | 610 | 65.3 | 59.8 | 70.4 | 1049 | 66.1 | 60.7 | 71.0 | 572 | 68.5 | 58.8 | 76.9 | 6.7 | 0.226 |
| Overall correct referral/hospitalisation (proportion of children in need of referral/hospitalisation who were actually referred/hospitalised) | Baseline | Control arm | Intervention arm | Individual-level difference between arms | P-value** | |||||||||
| Nd | % | 95%CI | Nd | % | 95%CI | Nd | % | 95%CI | ||||||
| According to the HCWs’ classifications | 35 | 60.0 | 47.7 | 71.1 | 42 | 52.4 | 23.7 | 79.6 | 41 | 61.0 | 21.5 | 89.9 | 8.6 | 0.509 |
| According to the validation nurses’ classifications | 29 | 55.2 | 36.0 | 72.9 | 32 | 53.1 | 36.5 | 69.1 | 22 | 68.2 | 47.8 | 83.4 | 15.1 | 0.398 |
| Overall correct treatment counselling (proportion of caretakers who received information on home-based prescription) | Baseline | Control arm | Intervention arm | Cluster-level mean difference between arms | P-value* | |||||||||
| Ne | % | 95%CI | Ne | % | 95%CI | Ne | % | 95%CI | ||||||
| 612 | 77.3 | 67.5 | 84.8 | 1143 | 91.5 | 88.8 | 93.6 | 576 | 87.9 | 77.9 | 93.7 | −4.1 | 0.355 | |
* t test on cluster-level summaries & accounting for the stepped wedge design; ** Fisher’s exact test on individual-level data & ignoring clustering
aNumber of children identified, by the validation nurses, with a given danger sign
b Number of children classified, by the validation nurses, with x given classification
cNumber of children classified, by the HCWs or by the validation nurses, with x given classification
dNumber of children identified, by the HCWs or the validation nurses, with at least one danger sign or a classification requiring referral/hospitalisation
e Number of children who were prescribed, by the HCWs, x given treatment (regardless of the classification)