A malaria knowledge, attitudes and practice survey in a rural community in Guinea

Abstract

Background Malaria is the top public health problem in the Republic of Guinea, with more than 4 million cases and 10,000 deaths in 2021 among a population of approximately 13 million. It is also the second highest cause of death there. The purpose of this quantitative survey in a rural area of Guinea was to understand knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) about malaria and to assess water and sanitation practices among community members. Methods In 2016, the authors conducted a cross-sectional household survey in Timbi-Touni, Guinea using community workers. The survey included respondent demographic characteristics, malaria knowledge, child health, water and sanitation, and health services access. Malaria knowledge and sleeping under bed nets were the primary outcome variables and multiple logistic regression was used to determine odds ratios. Results Majority of the respondents were women (89.41%) and had never been to school (71.18%). Slightly more than half the children were reported to have ever had malaria and 45% reported to have ever had diarrhoea. There was no statistically significant association between gender or level of education and malaria knowledge. Eighty six percent of respondents had received a free bed net during national campaigns and 61% slept under a bed net the night before the survey. Knowing mosquitoes to be the cause of malaria and receiving free bed net were significantly associated with sleeping under a bed net. There was no statistically significant association between drinking water source and malaria or diarrhoea. Conclusions Both malaria and diarrhoea were considered to be serious illnesses for adults and children by nearly all respondents. Receiving free bed nets and having correct knowledge about malaria were the greatest predictors of sleeping under a bed net. Insights from this detailed KAP survey—such as focusing on radio to transmit malaria prevention information and reinforcing free malaria treatments—can guide policy makers and practitioners who design and implement malaria control and prevention measures in Guinea.

Knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) during the malaria elimination phase: A household-based cross-sectional survey

“…However, there was misconception with regard to the vector that transmitted malaria as only 1 to 3rd of the respondents selected mosquitoes as a pathogen vector for malaria. The findings of this study lend credence to those found in earlier research carried out in Nigeria, [23,34,35] Guinea, [28] Tanzania, [29] Ethiopia, [36] and India. [24]…”

“…The structured questionnaire included demographic characteristics in the first part (nationality, gender, social status, number of family members, income, education level, type of accommodation, and area). The second part contained questions about knowledge, attitudes, and practices, which were designed based on previous studies [4,[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] and World Health Organization guidelines. [2,11,15] The knowledge questions were about the causes of malaria, the primary vector, symptoms, preventive measures, personal means for prevention, and knowledge about mosquito behavior.…”

Knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding malaria prevention and control in communities in the Eastern Region, Ghana, 2020

“…Low net usage (15%) was also reported in a study in Ghana [29]. This practice starkly disagrees with net usage in studies done in Ghana [27], and in other countries such as Cameroon [17,18], Tanzania [39], Ethiopia [19,21], Guinea [50], and Nigeria [24]. The main reason given by majority of respondents (77.2%) for the non-usage of the nets in this study was heat.…”

“…This information was to come preferably from radio, which most respondent have access to on their phones, or from church, as majority of the respondents are Christians [31] and within the Ghanaian context, religion strongly influences how people live their daily lives [49]. Radio can be used to effectively spread malaria education because it is frequently stated that people access health information on radio [50,51] as also revealed in this study.…”