@article{fdi:010086696,
  title = {{E}ffects of the free healthcare policy on health services' usage by children under 5 years in {B}urkina {F}aso : a controlled interrupted time-series analysis},
  author = {{D}ebe, {S}. and {I}lboudo, {P}. {G}. and {K}abore, {L}. and {Z}oungrana, {N}. and {G}ansane, {A}. and {R}idde, {V}al{\'e}ry and {D}e {B}rouwere, {V}. and {S}amandoulougou, {F}. {K}.},
  editor = {},
  language = {{ENG}},
  abstract = {{O}bjectives {T}his study aimed to analyse, at national level, the effects of the free healthcare policy for children on the use of health services by children under five in {B}urkina {F}aso. {W}e hypothesised that this policy has led to an immediate and sustained increase in the use of health services for these children in the country.{S}etting{W}e conducted a controlled interrupted time series. {M}onthly data at district level, spanning from {J}anuary 2013 to {D}ecember 2018 and corresponding to 72 monthly data points (39 before and 33 after), were extracted from the {B}urkina {F}aso {N}ational {H}ealth {I}nformation {S}ystem. {T}he analysed dataset included data from all the 70 health districts of the country.{P}articipants{T}he study consisted of aggregated data from children under five as the target for the policy with children aged between 5 and 14 years old as control group.{I}ntervention {T}he intervention was the introduction of the free healthcare policy for women and children under 5 years from {A}pril 2016. {O}utcome {T}he primary outcome was the monthly mean rate of health services visits by children. {R}esults {A}mong the children under five, the rate of visits increased of 57% (incidence rate ratio ({IRR})=1.57; 95% {CI} 1.2 to 2.0) in the month immediately following the launching of the free healthcare policy. {A}n increase in the rate of health facility visits of 1% ({IRR}=1.01; 95% {CI} 1.0 to 1.1) per month was also noted during postintervention. {C}ompared with the control group, we observed an increase in the rate of visits of 2.5% ({IRR}=1.025; 95% {CI} 1.023 to 1.026) per month. {C}onclusion {F}indings suggest that the free healthcare policy increased the use of health facilities for care in {B}urkina {F}aso immediately after the implementation of the policy with a small increase in the rate overtime. {S}trategies to maintain the policy effect over time are necessary.},
  keywords = {public health ; community child health ; health services administration & management ; {BURKINA} {FASO}},
  booktitle = {},
  journal = {{BMJ} {O}pen},
  volume = {12},
  numero = {11},
  pages = {e058077 [6 ]},
  ISSN = {2044-6055},
  year = {2022},
  DOI = {10.1136/bmjopen-2021-058077},
  URL = {https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010086696},
}