Current Prevalence of Malaria Knowledge and Practices among Residents of a Rural Community in South India

Abstract

Introduction: Malaria is a major public health problem in India. The prevention of Malaria is mainly dependent
on knowledge and beliefs of people.The National Framework for Malaria Elimination (NFME) 2016-2030
in India insists to eliminate malaria in India and for this to achieve the current malaria awareness on causes
and protection in the region where malaria was a major problem about 7 years back is very important. In this
background this study was undertaken to know the current Knowledge of Malaria in this area.
Objectives: To know the knowledge and practices of Malaria which was problem in the area about 7 years
back.
Methodology: Its a Cross-sectional study conducted in a rural community.Since the proportions of knowledge
and practices regarding malaria transmission in this setting was unknown, a 50% proportion was assumed
to ensure the maximum sample size.The total number of houses visited was 110 to achieve the sample size
of 384. The information of malaria with respect to Socio-demographic, knowledge and practices has been
collected from the adult respondent (aged >18 years) of the households in the villages of field practice area
of the medical college. Data was collected by semistructred questionnaire method. Frequencies, proportions
and chi-square test are the test of significance.
Results: Among the 384 subjects interviewed 73% (i.e. 280) knew about malaria and were assessed for
Knowledge and practices regarding malaria. About 32.8% (i.e. 126) said that malaria is a communicable
disease, Majority 74.7% (i.e. 287) said that malaria is transmitted from mosquito bite. About 19% (i.e. 72)
were not aware regarding mode of transmission of malaria. About 74.7% (i.e. 287) respondents informed
that mosquito nets were used in the night to protect from mosquito bites.
Conclusions: The study revealed that knowledge and practices about malaria was satisfactory and there
was varied perception about causes, spread of disease, symptoms and protection from mosquitoes. Health
personnel and medical students were the major source of knowledge in this the population. Since the malaria
is not a problem from the past 5 years, but still the overall awareness regarding malaria was good in this area.