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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Education and Promotion
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1556996
Assessing Informal Healthcare Providers' Knowledge of Diagnosis and Treatment of Malaria and Diarrhoea: evidence from urban informal settlements in Southeast Nigeria
Provisionally accepted
Ifeyinwa Arize 1,2*
Joy Ozughalu 2 Bernard Okechi 2,3
Chinyere Mbachu 2,4
Obinna E. Onwujekwe 2,5
Bassey Ebenso 6- 1 University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nsukka, Nigeria
- 2 Health Policy Research Croup, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, Nigeria, Enugu, Nigeria
- 3 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nsukka, Nigeria
- 4 Department of Community Medicine, Institute of Public Health, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, Enugu, Nigeria
- 5 Department of Health Administration and Management, Faculty of Health Science and Technology, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu, Nigeria
- 6 Leeds Institute of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom
Background: Despite availability of effective interventions, malaria and diarrhoea remain a top contributor to burden of diseases in Nigeria. Informal healthcare providers'(IHPs) account for a significant proportion of health service providers in urban slums and may pose a challenge to service quality if they are untrained and unregulated. This study assessed IHPs level of knowledge of diagnosis and treatment of malaria and diarrhoea.Methodology: A cross-sectional quantitative study was undertaken in eight (8) urban informal settlements (slums) in southeast Nigeria. Data was collected from 235 informal health providers using an interviewer administered questionnaire.The mean overall knowledge score for malaria and diarrhoea were 5.2 (95% CI: 4.3 -6.1) and 5.4 (95% CI: 4.1 -6.7) respectively among the different IHPs. However, private medicine vendor (PMVs) and traditional birth attendants (TBAs) showed higher knowledge of treatment of malaria and Diarrhoea. Attaining more than eight years of formal education and training on the job had a statistically significant effect on adequate knowledge of treatment of malaria and diarrhoea.Institutionalizing and strengthening service delivery through appropriate training and support for IHPs can improve the quality of health service delivery in urban slums.
Keywords: Malaria, diarrhoea, Informal Health Providers, Urban slums, Health Services
Received: 07 Jan 2025; Accepted: 19 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Arize, Ozughalu, Okechi, Mbachu, Onwujekwe and Ebenso. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Ifeyinwa Arize, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nsukka, Nigeria
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