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

Table 3 Logistic regression analysis results: Adjusted odds ratios, child fever care-seeking

	n^a	aOR	95% CI	n^a	aOR	95% CI	n^a	aOR	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	0.78	0.546–1.110	37	4.20** ^g	1.472–12.001	93	2.67***	1.504–4.736
HH wealth quintiles
2 lowest	299	1.0 (ref)	–	17	1.0 (ref)	–	51	1.0 (ref)
3 highest	362	1.22	0.846–1.752	45	1.79	0.831–3.859	89	2.30**	1.274–4.164
Mother’s education
None/some	361	1.0 (ref)	–	23	1.0 (ref)	–	56	1.0 (ref)
Primary	138	1.50	0.979–2.284	12	2.39* ^g	1.086–5.237	32	2.64** ^g	1.352–5.170
Secondary or higher	162	0.87	0.589–1.292	27	1.38	0.715–2.680	52	1.59	0.883–2.852
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	0.829–1.768	30	1.51	0.785–2.906	76	1.83*	1.094–3.046
Under-5 s in HH^h	661	1.03	0.964–1.101	62	1.10	0.966–1.244	140	0.88*	0.777–0.998

	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	0.29****	0.165–0.515	37	1.58	0.501–4.949
HH wealth quintiles
2 lowest	299	1.0 (ref)	–	17	1.0 (ref)	–
3 highest	362	0.53*	0.291–0.959	45	0.78	0.352–1.716
Mother’s education
None/some	361	1.0 (ref)	–	23	1.0 (ref)	–
Primary	138	0.57	0.287–1.114	12	0.90	0.346–2.355
Secondary or higher	162	0.55	0.280–1.079	27	0.87	0.375–2.028
Child’s age in months
0 to 23 months	382	1.0 (ref)	–	32	1.0 (ref)	–
24 to 59 months	279	0.66	0.410–1.071	30	0.83	0.406–1.687
Under-5 s in HH^h	661	1.17*	1.037–1.320	62	1.25**	1.058–1.466

	Care from a public provider^b vs. private provider^c
Residence^f
Rural	391	1.0 (ref)	–
Urban	260	0.19** ^g	0.063–0.544
HH wealth quintiles
2 lowest	299	1.0 (ref)	–
3 highest	362	0.68	0.313–1.478
Mother’s education
None/some	361	1.0 (ref)	–
Primary	138	0.63	0.264–1.488
Secondary or higher	162	0.63	0.296–1.342
Child’s age in months
0 to 23 months	382	1.0 (ref)	–
24 to 59 months	279	0.80	0.410–1.565
Under-5 s in HH^h	661	0.94	0.816–1.082

*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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