Compliance to Annual Ivermectin Treatment in Abia State, South Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

A study with the objective of determining the rate of individual compliance to annual ivermectin treatment was conducted in Abia State, south eastern Nigeria between January and November, 2011. The study captured the Local Government Areas in  Abia State that were assessed by Rapid  Epidemiological Mapping for Onchocerciasis (REMO) as being hyper-endemic for onchocerciasis and which have been receiving ivermectin for over 14 years. A study questionnaire was designed to investigate the rate of compliance and this was distributed to 558 individuals. The result showed that out of 558 individuals, 309 (55.4%) had taken the drug before while 249 (44.6%) claimed they have not been treated before. Despite the treatment over time, only 70 (22.7%) of those treated before were high compliers (that is, those who had been treated eight times and above). The overall percentage of high compliers in the sampled communities was only 12.6%. Reasons for low compliance include “lack of information on the arrival of drug” (27.8%), “no reason for refusal” (22.2%),” absent, away from village” (20.0%) and “no distribution” (19.7%). In testing the reasons for low compliance, the Chi-square analytical technique on the data revealed that the reasons given by the respondents for low compliance were not significant (?²_cal = 1.797 < ?²_tab = 16.9190), and therefore do not affect general compliance.

Key words: Compliance, Annual ivermectin treatment, Onchocerciasis