Evaluating the impact of a public health centre intervention on management of malaria and health outcomes of children in Uganda: Results from the PRIME & PROCESS studies

The PRIME intervention was implemented successfully, although not all health workers received the training. The intervention appeared to improve malaria case management, communication between health workers and patients, and patient satisfaction with care. But these improvements were small, and we did not see improvements in health outcomes of community children. Broader health centre changes and additional malaria prevention measures will be required in this high malaria transmission setting. 

Background:

Despite scale-up of malaria control interventions in Uganda, the burden of malaria remains high, and may be increasing in some areas. Health services in the public sector are inadequate, which prevents delivery of good quality care, limits appropriate fever case management and contributes to the lack of progress on malaria control.
We conducted the PRIME study to find out whether a multi-component intervention delivered at public health centres in Uganda could improve health outcomes of children and treatment of malaria, as compared to the current standard of care in Tororo district, Uganda.
The PRIME study findings were supplemented by the PROCESS study, an evaluation of the process, context, and wider impact of the PRIME intervention. Together these studies aimed to provide evidence of the health impact of a public sector intervention in Uganda.

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