title: Principal component analysis of socioeconomic factors and their association with malaria in children from the Ashanti Region, Ghana.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The socioeconomic and sociodemographic situation are important components for the design and assessment of malaria control measures. In malaria endemic areas, however, valid classification of socioeconomic factors is difficult due to the lack of standardized tax and income data. The objective of this study was to quantify household socioeconomic levels using principal component analyses (PCA) to a set of indicator variables and to use a classification scheme for the multivariate analysis of children<15 years of age presented with and without malaria to an outpatient department of a rural hospital.
  
  
  METHODS
  In total, 1,496 children presenting to the hospital were examined for malaria parasites and interviewed with a standardized questionnaire. The information of eleven indicators of the family's housing situation was reduced by PCA to a socioeconomic score, which was then classified into three socioeconomic status (poor, average and rich). Their influence on the malaria occurrence was analysed together with malaria risk co-factors, such as sex, parent's educational and ethnic background, number of children living in a household, applied malaria protection measures, place of residence and age of the child and the mother.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The multivariate regression analysis demonstrated that the proportion of children with malaria decreased with increasing socioeconomic status as classified by PCA (p<0.05). Other independent factors for malaria risk were the use of malaria protection measures (p<0.05), the place of residence (p<0.05), and the age of the child (p<0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The socioeconomic situation is significantly associated with malaria even in holoendemic rural areas where economic differences are not much pronounced. Valid classification of the socioeconomic level is crucial to be considered as confounder in intervention trials and in the planning of malaria control measures.
authors.affiliation: Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Bernhard-Nocht-Strasse 74, 20359 Hamburg, Germany. krefis@bni-hamburg.de
authors.forename: Anne Caroline
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Krefis
authors.forename: Norbert Georg
authors.initials: NG
authors.lastname: Schwarz
authors.forename: Bernard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Nkrumah
authors.forename: Samuel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Acquah
authors.forename: Wibke
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Loag
authors.forename: Nimako
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sarpong
authors.forename: Yaw
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Adu-Sarkodie
authors.forename: Ulrich
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Ranft
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: May
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D005869:Ghana / Q000453:epidemiology; D006780:Hospitals, Rural / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008288:Malaria / Q000191:economics* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D018512:Parasitemia / Q000191:economics* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D010290:Parents; D011203:Poverty; D025341:Principal Component Analysis / Q000379:methods; D012307:Risk Factors; D012424:Rural Population; D012923:Social Class; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors