3. RESULTS

3.1 Descriptive and analytic results

The frequency of inspection visits carried out by government district drug inspectors in both the intervention and comparison districts of the study are presented in table 2. Following the introduction of peer supervision, the mean (SD) monthly visits for district drug inspectors in the intervention district was 0.98(0.34) while in the comparison district was 0.78(0.31). The mean (SD) visits for peer supervisors in the intervention district was 1.2(0.87).
The aggregated monthly district percentages of appropriately treated children are presented in table 3 and Fig.2. There was a general increase in the overall percentage of children treated appropriately for pneumonia symptoms (using amoxicillin tablets) and non-bloody diarrhoea (using a combination of zinc and oral rehydration salts) in both districts months preceding introduction of peer supervision.
Following the introduction of peer supervision, there were monthly improvements in the overall appropriate treatment of children with pneumonia symptoms in the intervention district while there was a decline in the comparison district.
There was no difference in appropriate treatment of children with uncomplicated malaria between the two districts. Noticeably, more children were appropriately treated for non-bloody diarrhoea than malaria and pneumonia symptoms in both districts over the study period.