摘要
Background： Malaria is the commonest cause of anemia in pregnancy with severe consequence on the developing fetus. Recent clamor by the WHO for testing before treatment has driven a need to assess the effectiveness of available Rapid Diagnostic Tests （RDTs）. Objective： To determine the reliability of Rapid Diagnostic Tests （RDTs） for malaria among pregnant women booking in Federal Teaching Hospital, Ido-Ekiti, Nigeria. Materials and Methods： A cross-sectional study of 240 pregnant women were recruited at booking over a period of twenty weeks. A semi-structured questionnaire sought information about socio demographic data. Blood samples were taken for malaria and diagnosis was done using RDT and Microscopy. Results： Prevalence of malaria was 22.1% by microscopy and 27.5% by RDT. The sensitivity of RDT was 88.7% and specificity was 89.8%. The positive predictive value （PPV） of RDT was 71.2%, the Negative predictive value （NPV） of RDT was 96.6% and accuracy was 89.6%. The reliability of RDT was good （Kappa statistics = 0.731）. The reliability of RDTs when compared with that of Microscopy was also good （Kappa statistics = 0.722）. Conclusions： RDTs was an effective screening test for malaria among the respondents. Hence, primary care physician should utilize this resource by advocating for its availability.
