Assessment of Indirect Cost of Onchocerciasis Illness among Farming Households of North-Central Nigeria

The study assess the indirect cost of Onchocerciasis illness among Onchocerciasis infected households of NorthCentral Nigeria. Well- structured questionnaires was used to collect primary data from a sample of 556 respondents from three states: Benue State having 206 respondents, Nasarawa State and Plateau State with 217 and 133 respondents respectively. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Cost of Illness Approach (COI). The results showed that majority (72.7%) of the respondents were males and married (82.6%). The average age of the respondents was 46.4 years with average household size of 9.9 persons. On the average, economically active patients lost 26.62 workdays valued at N29289, Care-givers lost 15.36 workdays valued at N16896 while the illness limited 20.32 days of work valued at N2552 per cropping season. The results revealed that households incurred a total indirect cost of N289, 780.26 as a result of seeking treatment from Orthodox healthcare facilities (time lost cost) On the average, the indirect cost of illness was estimated atN338, 517.26 per household (time lost cost and workday lost cost) which is high enough to stretch the already tight expenditure budgets of the poor rural households The study therefore recommends that the services of Ivermectin distribution be brought closer to the patients in the remote areas regularly to reduce transportation cost and cost of time in order to improve timeliness of treatment.