Please cite this article in press as: Deressa, W. et al., Household and socioeconomic factors associated with childhood febrile illnesses and treatment seeking behaviour in an area of epidemic malaria in rural Ethiopia, Trans. Roy. Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg. (2007), doi:10.1016/j.trstmh.2007.04.018 ARTICLE IN PRESS +Model TRSTMH-652; No. of Pages 9 Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (2007) xxx, xxx—xxx available at www.sciencedirect.com journal homepage: www.elsevierhealth.com/journals/trst Household and socioeconomic factors associated with childhood febrile illnesses and treatment seeking behaviour in an area of epidemic malaria in rural Ethiopia Wakgari Deressa * , Ahmed Ali, Yemane Berhane Department of Community Health, Faculty of Medicine, Addis Ababa University, P.O. Box 9086, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Received 25 July 2006; received in revised form 23 April 2007; accepted 23 April 2007 KEYWORDS Malaria; Fever; Children; Socioeconomic factors; Risk factors; Ethiopia Summary To assess household and socioeconomic factors associated with childhood febrile illnesses and treatment seeking behaviour, a study was conducted in Adami Tulu district in Ethiopia during the peak malaria transmission season in 2003. All mothers/caretakers of chil- dren <5 years of age were interviewed regarding their household characteristics, history of febrile illness (malaria) among children and actions taken 2 weeks prior to the survey. Of 3873 children, 21% had experienced fever in the past 2 weeks. Household ownership of a mosquito net (odds ratio (OR) = 0.4, 95% CI 0.3—0.7) and prior spraying of the house with aerosols (OR = 0.7, 95% CI 0.5—0.9) or DDT (OR = 0.8, 95% CI 0.6—0.9) were associated with lower risk of febrile illnesses, whilst sharing the house with livestock increased the risk (OR = 1.3, 95% CI 1.1—1.6). Treatment was sought for 87% of febrile children, with public facilities, private clinics and community health workers accessed fairly equally (26—27%). Home management was uncom- mon (6.4%). More febrile children from households in the middle (37.1%) and highest (44.6%) wealth categories sought treatment within 24 h compared with the lowest category (18.3%). Widescale use of vector control measures such as mosquito nets and insecticide spraying of houses can effectively reduce the incidence of febrile illnesses among children. © 2007 Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +251 911 483 714; fax: +251 011 551 7701. E-mail address: deressaw@yahoo.com (W. Deressa). 1. Introduction Ethiopia has one of the poorest overall health indicators in the world. It has one of the highest under-five mor- tality rates (140/1000 live births) even among countries in sub-Saharan Africa, although this figure has shown a 0035-9203/$ — see front matter © 2007 Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.trstmh.2007.04.018