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. 2024 Mar 30;23(1):91.
doi: 10.1186/s12936-024-04916-z.

Receipt of seasonal malaria chemoprevention by age-ineligible children and associated factors in nine implementation states in Nigeria

Taiwo Ibinaiye  1 , Kunle Rotimi  2 , Ayodeji Balogun  3 , Adaeze Aidenagbon  2 , Chibuzo Oguoma  2 , Christian Rassi  4 , Kevin Baker  4   5 , Olusola Oresanya  2 , Chuks Nnaji  4
Affiliations

Receipt of seasonal malaria chemoprevention by age-ineligible children and associated factors in nine implementation states in Nigeria

Taiwo Ibinaiye et al. Malar J. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Background: As part of implementation quality standards, community distributors are expected to ensure that only age-eligible children (aged 3-59 months) receive seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) medicines during monthly campaigns. There is uncertainty about the extent to which SMC medicines are administered to ineligible children. This study aimed to assess the magnitude of this occurrence, while exploring the factors associated with it across nine states where SMC was delivered in Nigeria during the 2022 round.

Methods: This analysis was based on data from representative end-of-round SMC household surveys conducted in nine SMC-implementing states in Nigeria. Data of 3299 age-ineligible children aged > 5 years and their caregivers were extracted from the survey dataset. Prevalence of receipt of SMC medicines by ineligible children was described by child-, caregiver- and SMC-related factors. Mixed-effects multivariable logistic regression models were fitted to explore the factors associated with ineligible receipt of SMC medicines.

Results: 30.30% (95% CI 27.80-32.90) of ineligible children sampled received at least one dose of SMC medicines in 2022, the majority (60.60%) of whom were aged 5-6 years while the rest were aged 7-10 years. There were lower odds of an age-ineligible child receiving SMC among caregivers who had knowledge of SMC age eligibility (OR: 0.53, 95% CI 0.37-0.77, p < 0.001), compared with those who were knowledgeable of age eligibility. Higher odds of receipt of SMC were found among age-ineligible children whose caregivers had higher confidence in the protective effect of SMC against malaria (OR: 2.01, 95% CI 1.07-3.72, p = 0.030), compared with those whose caregivers were less confident. Compared with ineligible children of younger caregivers (aged < 20 years), those whose caregivers were older had lower odds of receiving SMC than those whose caregivers were younger; with lower odds among children of caregivers aged 20-39 years (OR: 0.50, 95% CI 0.30-0.82, p = 0.006).

Conclusions: This study contributes important evidence on the magnitude of the receipt of SMC medicines by age-ineligible children, while identifying individual and contextual factors associated with it. The findings provide potentially useful insights that can help inform and guide context-specific SMC implementation quality improvement efforts.

Keywords: Coverage; Eligibility; Malaria; Programme improvement; Seasonal malaria chemoprevention.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Map of Nigeria illustrating the states represented in this analysis
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Forest plot of adjusted odds ratios of factors considered in the multivariable regression model
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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