Rethinking the economic costs of malaria at the household level: Evidence from applying a new analytical framework in rural Kenya

Table 3 Cost burdens and coping strategies among survey households.

Variable	Wet season	Dry season	p-value
Mean monthly expenditure per household in KES (median)	271 (55)	165 (40)	0.13
Mean monthly direct costs as % of expenditure (median)	7.1 (2.1)	5.9 (1.4)	0.58
Mean monthly indirect cost as % of expenditure (median)	5.4 (0.0)	2.1 (0.0)	0.04
Mean direct costs as % of monthly expenditure
• Poorest	11.0	16.1	0.47
• Very poor	7.8	3.2	0.18
• Poor	5.0	3.7	0.59
• Less poor	6.8	3.3	0.37
• Least poor	3.4	2.6	0.57
Indirect costs as % of monthly expenditure
• Poorest	8.1	1.9	0.17
• Very poor	5.7	3.3	0.47
• Poor	3.4	3.5	0.89
• Less poor	1.4	1.5	0.43
• Least poor	1.6	0.5	0.9
Households adopting coping strategy (%)*	n = 74	n = 42
• Borrowing	37 (50.0)	29 (69.0)	0.05
• Gifts	29 (39.2)	7 (16.7)	0.01
• Sell labour	21 (28.3)	4 (9.5)	0.02
• Sell assets	6 (8.1)	7 (16.7)	0.22
• Credit from health care provider	8 (10.8)	6 (14.3)	0.57
• Other (mixed)	14 (18.9)	12 (28.6)	0.25

* Total adds up to more than 100% because some households adopted more than one strategy.

ISSN: 1475-2875