Understanding where parents take their sick children and why it matters: a multi-country analysis

Sources of Care Seeking for Childhood Illness

1. 42 countries are included in the map.

2. For purposes of characterizing the pattern of care seeking, public hospital, public outpatient health facility, and community health worker (CHW) are grouped to form “public.” Similarly, “private clinic” (which includes private hospital, private clinic, and private clinician) is grouped with retail sources, referred to here as “shop,” to form the category “private.”

3. Comparing the proportion seeking care between two categories, if the difference is greater than 40 percentage points, the care-seeking pattern is characterized as simply “public” or “private” (more specifically “private clinic” or “shop” if that specific source is predominant).

4. If the difference is from 10–40 percentage points, the adjective “mainly” is used.

5. If the difference is less than 10, the term “mixed” is used.

6. Additional sources of care are mentioned if a percent threshold is met, notably: at least 5% for non-allopathic, CHW, or NGO; and at least 10% for “shop” or “private clinic.”

7. For the following countries, MICS data were used and covered only acute respiratory infection (ARI), not diarrhea or fever: Burundi, Central African Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mauritania, Mozambique, Somalia, Tajikistan, Togo, and Vietnam.