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JOSE LUIS ÁLVAREZ Y COLS. AN. R. ACAD. NAC. FARM.

2. METHODS

Our goal was to compare the different treatments offered by the
private and public centres in Zagnanado. After meeting with local
health workers and reviewing available data from Benin and other
countries (4, 5), it was decided that the first step should be comparing
the external consultation of Gbemontin and all of the public centres
in Zagnanado. We conducted an epidemiological observational
retrospective study on the period from January 1st to December 31st
2007, recording all the patients that came to the external consultation
in the private Centre of Gbemontin and the Public Health Centres
in Zagnanado. We assumed that the population who came to both
centres had the same socio-demographic characteristics and were
mainly from the area of Zagnanado.

From this non-probabilistic sampling, we recorded the age, gender
and possible diagnosis of each patient. Childbirth assistance was
not included because the public centres completely fulfil these
assignments. Seventeen diagnostic categories were described to group
all different pathologies. We obtained a complete and suitable list of
more than 60.000 patients, which was entered in Excel. All data were
analysed with Epidat free software (version 3.1). For pathology
distribution comparison, the ?2 test was used.

3. RESULTS

In total, 36.563 patients attend the different public centres of
Zagnanado, and 24.600 receive consultation consult at Gbemontin, so
40% of the patients chose to attend the new private centre. Between
2001 and 2007, the number of patients who consulted at Gbemontin
increased from 20.701 to 24.600, which is an increase of 18.8%.

More than one-third (34%) of the people who came to our new
dispensary were diagnosed with malaria, 14.45% suffered from
respiratory diseases (mainly acute infections of the lower respiratory
system) and 13.5% had no established diagnoses. Among the patients
who went to the public health care centres of Zagnanado’s commune,
42% had not established a defined diagnosis, 15% were diagnosed
with respiratory diseases and 7.8% were diagnosed with malaria
(Figure 1).

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