Knowledge, attitude and practices regarding malaria among residents of rural Mangalore, India

Abstract

Background: Malaria is one of the most prevalent parasitic diseases worldwide and India has fourth highest number of malaria cases and deaths in the world. Prevention of the disease through better knowledge and awareness is the appropriate way to keep the disease away and remain healthy. Thus, the present study was aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices regarding malaria among residents of Mangalore.Methods: Community based cross sectional study was conducted among residents in Mangalore. The data was collected by using pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire which include socio-demographic data, basic knowledge about malaria, transmission and preventive measures and health seeking behaviour regarding malaria through interview method.Results: Almost 98.4% respondents heard of malaria disease and 96% respondents had knowledge that malaria is caused by mosquito bite. Even, majority (72%) of respondents knew that malaria can be fatal. Regarding the symptoms of malaria, 52.4% respondents mentioned fever with chills and 11.6% respondents don’t know about malarial symptoms.Conclusions: Majority of the respondents were familiar with the malaria symptoms, mode of transmission and vector control measures. They had good knowledge of malaria disease and good practices of malaria control measures.

Assessment of knowledge and their practices regarding malaria among members of Village Health Sanitation Committee in rural Uttar Pradesh: A cross-sectional study

“…It was noted in the present study that nearly all the participants (97.11%) have heard about malaria. Similar results were shown by various studies conducted by Madne et al ,[ 10 ] Gupta,[ 11 ] Borkar et al ,[ 12 ] Gupta et al ,[ 13 ] and Singh et al ,[ 14 ] where all or most of the study participants heard about malaria, whereas a study conducted by Mahesh et al . [ 15 ] in the Rural Endemic area of Kolar, India, showed that only 78% of study participants knew about malaria.…”

Perceptions and practices on malaria in a rural population of Koraput district, Odisha

“…Responses concerning the best way to cure malaria was, 50.39% of respondent said that medicine is the best way to cure, 40.31% believed that both medicine and injection are needed, only 0.78% have answered that ethnomedicine is the best way for treatment, and 1.55% have expressed that both modern medicine and traditional medicine are necessary for treatment. 6,14 Appropriate knowledge of awareness in the study is lagging, and this type of result is found by Joshi et al 12 In this study, 74.42% of respondents had a practice of cleaning the household surrounding for the prevention of malaria disease, similar results were also found by an earlier study. 15 In this study area, Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) was sprayed before 3 years; it should be sprayed twice annually.…”

“…60%), which is similar to the findings of previous studies [6][7][8][9][10]. Majority of respondents (89.66%) answered that tablets can cure malaria.…”

“…The majority of the respondents (98.06%) have known that malaria is caused by mosquito bites. A similar study has been done by Gupta et al, Madne et al, Joshi et al, and Tyagi et al 88.37% of respondents have buried mosquito sites 6,[11][12][13]. Only 62.79% numbers respondents had an attitude of consulting doctors for fever in any one of the family members.…”

“…To access knowledge, attitude, and practice on malaria, pretested and self-modified questionnaires were administered. 6 Informed consent was taken from the participants who were included in the current study. The ethical approval was approved by the Research Advisory Committee (RAC), Central University of Odisha.…”