Caregiversf willingness.to.pay for a topical anesthetic cream for minor medical procedures in children

Abstract

Background: Topical anesthetic cream (TAC) is not in use in pediatric practice in Sub.saharan regions. Knowledge of Caregivers willingness.to.pay (WTP) for the cream is necessary for its deployment.
Objective: To determine the WTP for TAC for minor pediatric painful procedures.
Materials and Methods: The study was a questionnaire based conducted in two tertiary health institutions in southeast Nigeria. WTP was elicited using the contingent valuation method. The respondents were caregivers to children that attended out.patient clinics and in.patient. Data analysis was by Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software (SPSS) and STATA11.
Results: Majority (94%) of the respondents were willing to pay for TAC. The mean maximum WTP was US$8.31. Multivariate analysis showed no statistically significant association between many variables with WTP for TAC.
Conclusions: Their average WTP was higher than the market price of topical anesthetic cream. Therefore, there is a good prospect for TAC if deployed in Nigeria.

Key words: Childhood pain, Nigeria, topical anesthetic cream,  willingness-to-pay