Burden of endemic disease and health seeking behaviour in Ebonyi state, Nigeria : socio-economic status and geographic differences

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the socio-economic status (SES) and geographic differences in occurrence and burden of tropical endemic diseases, as well as the health seeking behaviours of individuals residing in Ebonyi State, Nigeria. The study was undertaken in three communities (urban, semi-urban and rural). A pre-tested structured interview schedule was used to collect data from randomly selected households. An asset-based SES index was used to examine the occurrence of socio-economic equity in burden of disease and health seeking behaviours, whilst comparisons between the three communities were used to explore geographic equity in the burden of disease and health seeking behaviours of households. The majority of the households reported occurrences of illness during the month preceding the survey. Malaria and diarrhoea were the most commonly reported illnesses. There were inequities in the burden of disease and treatment seeking behaviours amongst the study groups. The poorer households and rural dwellers sought treatment more often from lower level providers than the richer urban dwellers. Appropriate interventions are required to equitably scale-up the deployment of existing cost-effective tools for the control of tropical endemic diseases if Nigeria is to achieve its millennium development goals (MDGs).