Factors influencing fever care-seeking for children under five years of age in The Gambia: a secondary analysis of 2019–20 DHS data

Table 2 Logistic regression analysis results: Crude odds ratios, child fever care-seeking

	n^a	cOR	95% CI	n^a	cOR	95% CI	n^a	cOR	95% CI
	Care from a public provider^b vs. no treatment			Care from private provider^c vs. no treatment			Care from an informal source^d vs. no treatment
	n = 661, 45.07%^e			n = 62, 6.96%^e			n = 140, 12.77%^e
Residence^f
Rural	391	1.0 (ref)	–	20	1.0 (ref)	–	40	1.0 (ref)	–
Urban	260	0.73	0.523–1.029	37	4.03*^g	1.323–12.263	93	3.30****	1.887–5.780
HH wealth quintiles
2 lowest	299	1.0 (ref)	–	17	1.0 (ref)	–	51	1.0 (ref)	–
3 highest	362	1.16	0.809–1.652	45	1.89	0.930–3.827	89	2.24**	1.332–3.772
Mother’s education
None/some	361	1.0 (ref)	–	23	1.0 (ref)	–	56	1.0 (ref)	–
Primary	138	1.37	0.904–2.063	12	2.29*^g	1.074–4.864	32	2.83**^g	1.475–5.435
Secondary or higher	162	0.85	0.599–1.202	27	1.92*	1.005–3.669	52	2.26**	1.363–3.731
Child’s age in months
0 to 23 months	382	1.0 (ref)	–	32	1.0 (ref)	–	64	1.0 (ref)	–
24 to 59 months	279	1.21	0.839–1.741	30	1.48	0.797–2.726	76	1.79*	1.129–2.850
Under-5 s in HH^h	661	1.05	0.987–1.116	62	1.07	0.934–1.220	140	0.84**	0.739–0.959

	Care from a public provider^b vs. informal source^d			Care from private provider^c vs. informal source^d
Residence^f
Rural	391	1.0 (ref)	–	20	1.0 (ref)	–
Urban	260	0.22****	0.129–0.382	37	1.22	0.373–3.982
HH wealth quintile
2 lowest quintiles	299	1.0 (ref)	–	17	1.0 (ref)	–
3 highest quintiles	362	0.52*	0.307–0.867	45	0.84*	0.385–1.840
Mother’s education
None/some	361	1.0 (ref)	–	23	1.0 (ref)	–
Primary	138	0.48*^g	0.255–0.913	12	0.81	0.320–2.039
Secondary/higher	162	0.38***	0.214–0.662	27	0.85	0.382–1.898
Child’s age
0 to 23 months	382	1.0 (ref)	–	32	1.0 (ref)	–
24 to 59 months	279	0.67	0.434–1.048	30	0.82	0.413–1.637
Children < 5 yrs in HH^h	661	1.25***	1.108–1.404	62	1.27**	1.072–1.501

	Care from a public provider^b vs. private provider^c
Residence^f
Rural	391	1.0 (ref)	–
Urban	260	0.18** ^g	0.059–0.562
HH wealth quintile
2 lowest quintiles	299	1.0 (ref)	–
3 highest quintiles	362	0.61	0.298–1.258
Mother's education
None/some	361	1.0 (ref)	–
Primary	138	0.60	0.264–1.352
Secondary/higher	162	0.44* ^g	0.216–0.905
Child's age
0 to 23 months	382	1.0 (ref)	–
24 to 59 months	279	0.82	0.433–1.552
Children < 5 yrs in HH^h	661	0.98	0.858–1.127

*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001; ****p < 0.0001
DHS, Demographic and Health Survey; HH, Household; Under-5 s, children under 5 years of age; NGO, nongovernmental organization
^aUnweighted sample size
^bPublic sources included: government hospital; government health centre; government health post; and reproductive and child health outreach [mobile] clinic
^cPrivate sector health services included: private hospital/clinic; private doctor; mobile clinic; and NGO hospital/clinic
^dInformal sources of treatment included: private pharmacy; shop; traditional practitioner; and “other.”
^eWeighted proportion
^fResidence variable is missing 3.4% of observations due to indeterminate or irreconcilable responses
^gMay be statistically unreliable due to small sample sizes and percent/standard error > 30%
^hThe number of children under 5 years of age in the household is an ordinal variable

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