Socio-economic Burden of Malaria: The case of Jabi-tehnan Distric

Abstract

This thesis explores the economic burden of malaria incidence by controlling household practices regarding malaria prevention in Jabi-tehnan District. It uses household survey data collected by the Social Sciences and Impact Assessment Unit of the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology(icipe). This study aimed at assessing and examining factors contributing to malaria and the impact of the incidenceby using both descrptive statistics and econometrics aproach. In the descriptive analysis, itis assessed that malaria causes on average 465 ETBexpenditure per person, led to 29 days of absenteeism from school, and 10 workdays lost. We use OLS and RE for malaria deteminant regrssion. Maize productivity function is estimated by using OLS, RE, 2SLS, GLS, and 3SLS. In the first part of the econometrics analysis, the determinants of malaria incidence are estimated. The result from the estimation suggests household practices, nutritional status, and catching diseases other than malaria significantly determine malaria incidence. Household practices indicator variables significantly explain the difference in the incidence of malaria among households. In the second part of the econometric analysis, we estimate the impact of malaria on maize productivity byusing various models (OLS, RE, 2SLS, GLS, and 3SLS). The results differ across models. Under OLS and RE model estimation: malaria negatively affects maize productivity while taking malaria as an exogenous variable. Malaria is insignificant in determining maize productivity in other models that uses instrumental variables. This may be attributed to the substitution of ill family labor with hired ones and/or cooperation of the community. We also found that malaria incidence in the household increases labor days per hectare since illness makes individuals far from being effective. This is estimated by using 3SLS. Based on theresults from this study, weimply that any intervention of malaria reduction needs to consider the health-seeking behavior of households. This helps to deal with the systematic difference in households’ practices regarding malaria and its prevention methods. Policies intended to reduce the burden of malaria should not only consider the short-run economic consequences, rather emphasize the burden it imposes on an individual’s capacity