ECONOMIC BURDEN OF MALARIA IN TANZANIA: AN INVESTIGATION OF CHILDREN UNDER FIVE YEARS
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Date
2017-11-22
Authors
Chamwali, Lihoya Anthony
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Dar es Salaam
Abstract
The importance of having good health for both parents and their children cannot be
ignored, as it allows households to participate effectively in activities which earn
them income. This study analyzes the economic burden of malaria in Tanzania for
households with children under five years. Specifically it examines the effect of the
presence of the under five malaria admissions on households’ incomes and wages,
estimates the effect of the presence of under five malaria admissions on households’
agricultural output and finds out the determinants of under five malaria admissions.
The study uses the Tanzania National Panel Survey (TNPS) data set which was
conducted in three waves by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The first,
second and third waves were conducted in years 2008/9, 2010/11 and 2012/13
respectively. The survey covered more than 3000 households in each wave. But for
the purpose of this study, more than 600 households who had under five children and
who were interviewed in all the three rounds formed the main sample size of the
study. A fixed effect model is used to analyze the effect of the presence of the under
five malaria admissions on households’ wages and incomes. Ordinary Least Square
(OLS) is used to analyze the effect of the presence of the under five malaria
admissions on households’ agricultural output and the panel logit regression model is
used to find the determinants of the under five malaria admissions. The results reveal
that the presence of the under five children admitted with malaria in a household
burdens households as its income and wages are reduced by 12.06 percent and 6.6
percent respectively, while households’ agricultural output was reduced by 18.94
percent in 2008/9 and by 28.94 percent in 2012/13 holding climate related factors
constant. The study has also revealed that a large size of the household , age of the
household head and sources of drinking water (both well water, river water and piped
water) put the under five children at risk of having malaria admissions. The policy
implications of the findings are that the government needs to focus on the prevention
of malaria through indoor and outdoor spraying in addition to the distribution of free
mosquito nets. A malaria free society will allow households to increase hours of
work in productive activities and this will increase their incomes. Households will
also become food secure if malaria rates are reduced due to effective participation in
agricultural activities.Besides, the government needs to ensure that leaking pipes are
repaired timely so as to reduce the mosquitoes breeding places, especially ponds of
leaked water around homes.