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Table 5 Matrix of factors reported by papers to attract care seekers to different provider types: Supplies and services seen as good or recommended

From: Improving access to health care for malaria in Africa: a review of literature on what attracts patients

Provider type

Community health workers

(n = 3)

Drug shop/pharmacy

(n = 10)

Traditional healer

(n = 1)

Private health centre/facility

(n = 8)

Public health centre/facility

(n = 13)

Hospital

(n = 11)

Provider type not specified

(n = 10)

Attracting factor

       

Provider supplies (mostly drugs) and facilities are good (n = 28)

'Drug availability' Ethiopia [95]

Tanzania[91]

 

'Drug availability' Kenya[35]Ethiopia[13]

'Drug availability' Zambia[60]Uganda [102]

'Drug availability' Zambia[93, 78]Uganda[41], Nigeria [25]

'Availability of drugs' Nigeria [20, 48]Uganda[46], Ghana[21]

 

'Staff availability' Nigeria & Ghana & Uganda & Kenya[55], Nigeria[57]

'Drug availability' Nigeria [28, 26]Tanzania[53, 101] Uganda [32], [102, 18]Ethiopia[13]

  

'Well equipped' Kenya[49, 38]Tanzania[34] Uganda [16]

'Drips available'

Tanzania[101]

 
  

'Wide range of drugs' Tanzania[101]

Malawi[24]

  

'Ward for in-patients' Tanzania [47]

'Diagnostic facilities' Zambia[93]

Tanzania[101]

 
     

'Presence of laboratory' Tanzania [47]

'Staff availability' Zambia[93]

 
     

'Medical staff' Kenya [38]

  

Better 'quality of services' (as a general statement) (n = 15)

 

Uganda[18]

Uganda[32]

Kenya[14], Ethiopia[10], Uganda[41], Ghana [21]

Ethiopia [39] Nigeria [62]

Uganda[41], Nigeria [62]

Kenya[50, 49], Tanzania [47], Nigeria [20, 48], Mozambique[51], Ghana [21]

     

'Have better quality control and regulation of services' Nigeria [66]

  

Provider recommended by another provider (n = 11)

   

Tanzania[91, 83]

Uganda[12, 103, 17]

Tanzania [69, 104, 34, 75]

Uganda [103],

'Health facilities ' Tanzania [105]

Burkina Faso[33]

  1. Note: Papers providing a rich description of attracting factors are marked in bold; findings from methods involving open-ended questions are underlined