acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

High prevalence of childhood disease and low use of health facilities are reported for developing countries. In this study factors affecting the incidence of fever, cough and diarrhea and the factors predicting health facility use in rural DRC were analyzed. This study uses the data collected by the World Bank household survey in 2007 from eight health districts. In the districts, clusters were randomly selected for inclusion, and then a systematic selection of households was performed until the targeted number of children was reached. Data on health status of 5860 children during the previous two weeks were collected from 4838 households Bivariate analysis using Pearson chi-square was performed to identify potential determinants of childhood diseases. For cough and fever, multinomial logistic equation has been used to explain the choice of healthcare providers in comparison to the health center, the facility being promoted in DRC Percent of children who suffered from fever, cough and diarrhea were 46.2%, 33.3%, and 21.2% respectively. Age of the child, household size, and health district location were important in affecting the incidence of childhood diseases, while number of children under-five in the household and number of individuals per room were important in explaining the incidence of fever and diarrhea respectively. Health facility use was relatively low (47% for fever, and 35% for cough), but it was not as bad as reported by earlier studies. Income, education, cost of care, quality of care, type of symptom, hospital bed and geographic location were predictors of health facility use for fever and cough. The use of Oral Rehydration Salt for diarrhea was affected by income, age of the child and population density Children whose mothers believed cost of care was affordable were 52.2% and 43.8% less likely not to seek help (OR = 0.478 and 0.562) for fever and cough respectively. For hospital visit versus health center use, children from poorest households were 42.1% and 81.0% less likely to visit hospitals compared to the children from the least poor households (OR = 0.579 and 0.190). The findings may be used to encourage higher level of use of health centers / acase@tulane.edu