Dissertation (MSc Statistics)
Malaria remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality, leading to more than 600 million cases and two million deaths each year worldwide. Over 90% of these cases occur in sub-Saharan Africa where Falciparum Malaria is pervasive and the major killer of children below five (5) years old. This study was conducted through modelling the length of stay using some variables from hospital register for inpatients with Malaria. The results showed that the hospital length of stay per day at St. Francis referral hospital was influenced by predictors that are, lab-turnaround time (TAT), actual treatment, season when the patient was admitted, patient diagnostic status, severity, distance and age, which were statistically significant at α = 0.01 (1%) and 0.05 (5%) with their p-values 0.001(1%), 0.008(5%), 0.013(5%), 0.005(1%), 0.000(1%), 0.000(1%), 0.000(1%) respectively. However, the variable patient outcome on admission was insignificant with p-value 0.107. Also, the findings from Logistic Regression indicate that the predictors distance, duration of stay in hospital (LOS), age, Referral status, sex, patient diagnostic status and season when the patient was admitted; were statistically significant at 1% and 5% with their p-value 0.004 (5%), 0.035 (5%), 0.005 (5%), 0.007 (5%), 0.043 (5%) and 0.039 (5%) odds ratios (1.124,1.023,0.867,0.036,1.455,1.065 and 0.170) respectively were independent risk factors for severe malaria among inpatient at St. Francis referral hospital. Clinical laboratory turnaround time performance was insufficient, since five months out of six months the process was incapable, but the process was capable only for one month with the pc and kCp of 1.58 and 1.29 respectively.