Tech Reports

ULCS-04-018

Modeling of Antimalarial Drug Compliance: Preliminary Report

Sebastian Rahlf, Guy Barnish, Ray Paton, Peter McBurney, Dyfrig Hughes and Ian Hastings

Abstract

We concentrate on understanding compliance in the treatment of uncomplicated (i.e. non-severe) malaria in children. Generally, the people involved in any decisions regarding the treatment of children are their mothers. Due to the high cost of medication and consultation, and the low impact of training programs, mothers in Africa often decide either not to fully comply with the doctors' prescriptions or not to obtain the proper treatment in the first place. Attempting to simulate how they would decide under certain circumstances would help a great deal in understanding the factors involved in making health care decisions. For this purpose a network was devised that contained all variables believed to be significantly involved in the decision, and their relationship to each other. Using methods from qualitative decision theory (QDT) and an agent-based modelling approach, the outcome showed a correlation between the cost of treatment and drugs, and the level of compliance. Keywords: Non-compliance, uncomplicated malaria, QDT, simulation.

Note: This model forms a component of the prototype malaria treatment diffusion model reported

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