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Table 2 Laboratory markers of malaria disease severity

From: Reduced paediatric hospitalizations for malaria and febrile illness patterns following implementation of community-based malaria control programme in rural Rwanda

 

n (%)

  

Pre

Post

PR* [95% CI]

chi-squared

p-value

Slide-positive (N = 386)

205 (80.4)

63 (48.1)

1.67 [1.39–2.02]

<0.0001

Suspected malaria, no slide results available (N = 51)

32 (11.1)

19 (12.7)

0.88 [0.52–1.50]

0.64

High parasitaemia (N = 268)

116 (56.6)

22 (34.9)

1.62** [1.11–2.38]

0.004

Severe anemia, slide-positive admissions (N = 161)

21 (18.9)

4 (8.0)

2.47** [0.84–7.24]

0.08

Severe anemia, all hospitalizations (N = 307)

23 (15.3)

6 (3.8)

3.85** [1.60–9.25]

0.001

No hemoglobin result (N = 244)

172 (53.4)

72 (31.4)

1.70 [1.37–2.11]

<0.0001

  1. Results for laboratory-definable markers of disease severity: admission haemoglobin and admission peripheral parasitaemia are shown. For parasitaemia, percents are recorded as proportion of pre-intervention, post-intervention, or total admissions for malaria for which a slide result was available. For low vs. high (3+-4+) parasitaemia, percents are recorded as proportion of total slide-positive malaria admissions. For missing data, percentages are recorded as proportion of total malaria admissions for which slide results were unavailable. Severe anemia is defined as ≤ 5 g/dl. * Prevalence ratio comparing the proportion in the pre-intervention period to the proportion in the post-intervention period. ** adjusted for age using three categories (<1 year; 1–5 years; > 5 years)