Abstract

Abstract- Introduction Malaria has continued to be a public health problem in the World today despite concerted efforts aimed at its control and elimination Prompt diagnosis and timely treatment of malaria within 24 hours after onset of first symptoms can reduce illness progression to severe stages and therefore decrease mortality Thus the current study assessed determinants of delayed malaria treatment seeking for under-five children with malaria attending health centers of Bench-Maji zone from March 1 June 30 2016 Methods Community based Unmatched Case control study design with a total sample size of 354 identified using systematic sampling Cases were under- five children who had confirmed Malaria and Sought treatment after 24 hrs of developing sign and symptom and controls were under-five children who had clinical malaria and came for treatment within 24 hrs of developing sign and symptom The association between the outcome variable and the explanatory variables was analyzed by multiple Logistic regressions The strength of association was interpreted using odds ratio and confidence interval The P value 0 05 was considered statistically significant in this study Result The study was carried out on 326 under-five children with confirmed malaria with the response rate of 92 1 Among them 132 40 5 cases and 194 59 5 were controls which show cases to control ratio was 1 1 5 The annual income of the caretaker Number of under-five children having information about malaria perceived distance and cost of transport to the health center are significantly associated with malaria treatment seeking among under-five children Conclusion and Recommendation Most under-five children seek malaria diagnosis and treatment earlier within 24 hrs Malaria control programmed should focus on increasing access to public health facilities through the expansion of infrastructures such as road and health centers and also emphasis should be given on f