| dc.description.abstract | Malaria remains one of t
he most severe diseases facing Sub
-
Saharan African.
The global
incidence of the disease is estimated at 350 to 500 million clinical cases annually, resulting in 1.
5 to 2.7
million deaths each year in sub
-
Saharan Africa and parts of Asia. In Kenya, malaria
is the leading cause of
morbidity and accounts for 19 per cent of hospital admissions and between 30
-
50% of outpatient cases in
public health institutions. In addition to its health effect, the disease imposes serious social and
economic
burden on individu
als and households. It is also estimated that the total cost burden due to malaria in Africa
increased from US dollars 1.8
billion
in 1995 to US dollars 2 billion. While a great deal of research effort has
been placed on the cost burden of malaria on house
holds, comparatively little research, particularly in Kenya,
has investigated the impact of malaria on wage earnings. Even rarer in previous work is the failure
to address
the endogeneity problem of malaria when estimating the effect of the disease on wage
earnings. The
objective of this study was to provide empirical evidence of the impact of malaria
on
wage earnings among
households in Kenya.
Methods:
The analysis was based on data drawn from Welfare Monitoring Surveys conducted by the
Government of Ke
nya. The data provided information on individual and household socio
-
economic
characteristics, sources of
wage earnings community
variables such as time taken to collect water and
firewood
during the wet and dry seasons
. Two analytic samples were construct
ed, a full
probability
sample
comprising households inflicted with malaria and other diseases and a sub
-
sample of healthy individuals and
those having malaria.
Results:
Based on the OLS results the coefficient on malaria exhibited the expected negative s
ign. The
coefficient is significant at the 1% level, reflecting
that
an increase in malaria prevalence is associated with a
decrease in wage earnings. Specifically
, a
10% increase in the proportion of individuals affected by Malaria
is associated with a re
duction of 3.3% of wage earnings. The negative sign continues regardless of the
method of estimation. The 2SLS results indicate that an increase in malaria prevalence reduces the l
og of
wage earnings by 3.81.
This implies
that individuals afflicted by mala
ria have 44% lower wage earnings
compared to healthy individuals. Also of interest is the coefficient on other diseases which has the
expected
negative sign and is statistically significant at the 5% level.
Conclusion:
Individuals
are likely to lose a si
gnificant proportion of their
wage earnings
if
one
suffers from
malaria. However, investments in malaria control programmes have large economic returns because they
make an immediate contribution to
wage earnings
by increasing the quantity and quality of l
about, primarily
through reductions in morbidity, debility, and absenteeism from work. | en |
