Table 7 Time to treatment initiation, duration, disruption of income-earning and illness expenditure by study areas and sex
| Â | South-eastern districts | North-eastern districts | significance | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Â | M | F | All | M | F | All | Â |
| Â | a | b | c | d | e | f | c vs. f |
Treatment initiated % | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | p < 0.01 |
   Within 24 hours | 44.8 | 41.7 | 43.2 | 24.6 | 27.3 | 25.7 | (χ2) |
   Beyond 24 hours | 55.2 | 58.3 | 56.8 | 75.4 | 72.7 | 74.3 |  |
Duration of illness % | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | p < 0.01 |
   ≤ 3 days | 29.1 | 33.9 | 31.7 | 19.6 | 21.9 | 20.5 | (χ2) |
   4–7 days | 50.5 | 36.4 | 43.0 | 28.3 | 37.5 | 32.1 |  |
   ≥ 7 days | 20.4 | 29.7 | 25.3 | 52.2 | 40.6 | 47.4 |  |
Days income-earning was disrupted (mean) | 5.0 | 5.3 | 5.1 | 7.0 | 9.2 | 7.6 | p < 0.003 (t-test) |