Malaria Journal

Table 4 Reported perceived causes and the single most important cause for MRI with and without convulsions

From: Community concepts of malaria-related illness with and without convulsions in southern Ghana

Perceived causes reported¹	How reported²				Most important
	With convulsion (n = 101)		Without convulsion (n = 100)		With convulsion (n = 101)	Without convulsion (n = 100)
	Total (%)	Fraction Spont.	Total (%)	Fraction Spont.
Insect bites
Mosquito bite	44.4	0.24	94.0	0.48**	6.9	35.0**
Infections & malaria-related	95.1	0.64	73.0	0.07**	43.6	1.0**
Phlegm	77.1	0.41	24.0	0.04**	15.8	0.0**
Atridii/asra/malaria	57.4	0.54	0.0	0.00**	13.9	0.0**
Worm infections	58.2	0.17	68.0	0.06	13.9	1.0**
Exposure	39.6	0.67	89.0	0.63**	9.9	33.0**
Heat from the sun or fire	27.8	0.75	81.0	0.68**	8.9	31.0**
Airborne/exposure	16.9	0.41	22.0	0.14	1.0	2.0
Sanitation & hygiene	58.4	0.63	90.0	0.51**	10.0	11.0
Personal hygiene	36.8	0.78	51.0	0.65*	5.0	4.0
Sanitation	25.9	0.73	30.0	0.73	4.0	4.0
Playing on the ground	21.9	0.46	43.0	0.37**	1.0	0.0
Houseflies	34.7	0.14	78.0	0.13**	0.0	3.0*
Supernatural	84.2	0.35	79.0	0.04**	19.8	1.0**
Spirits	78.3	0.38	63.0	0.02**	19.8	1.0**
Evil eyes or sorcery	50.4	0.24	41.0	0.00**	0.0	0.0
Food and drink	36.7	0.38	96.0	0.41**	2.0	18.0**
Eating unbalanced diet	0.0	0.00	17.0	0.12**	2.0	3.0
Fatty/oily food	26.8	0.15	84.0	0.12**	0.0	8.0**
Eating unripe fruits	12.9	0.00	72.0	0.08	0.0	6.0**
Impure water	11.8	0.83	31.0	0.39**	0.0	1.0

¹ Perceived causes analysed as groups (in bold) based on reported categories that follow.
*p ≤ 0.10 and ** p ≤ 0.05. Wilcoxon test for comparison of prominence of reported categories (2 = spontaneous, 1 = probed response, 0 = not reported), and Fisher's exact test for most important perceived causes.
²Column values indicate frequency of reported categories and the fraction of these reported spontaneously.

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ISSN: 1475-2875

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