Patients’ Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices on Uncomplicated Malaria Management in Plateau State, North-Central Nigeria

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to assess patients’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) on uncomplicated malaria management in primary health-care (PHC) facilities of Plateau state, Nigeria.
 Methods: A validated self-reported scale known as patients’ KAP instrument for uncomplicated malaria with Cronbach’s alpha reliability of 0.74 was administered to 956 patients that consented to participate in the study across 24 PHC facilities in the state between May and July 2017. The collated data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel and IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS®) version 23 software.
 Results: There were more female participants (53.5%) compared to the males (46.5%), and majority (33.4%) within the age range of 28 and 37 years with 26.5% falling within the age range of 18–27 years and children of <18 years of age constituted 13.8% of the study population. About 42.1% of the respondents were married, and many either had secondary (37.3%) or primary (30.0%) education as their highest qualifications. With overall mean (±standard deviation [SD]) attitudes’ score of 34.55 (±7.20), majority (50.8%) were categorized as having average positive attitudes toward disease and its management, and many of them (55.2%) also had good knowledge (mean [±SD] score=4.59 [±1.44]) and practices (67.1%) (mean [±SD] score=14.98 [±3.44]) on the disease and its management.
 Conclusion: The study indicated respondents’ knowledge and practices on uncomplicated malaria as good, while their attitudes toward the disease and its management were average.

Sero-prevalence of malaria and the knowledge, attitudes and practices relating to the prevention of malaria among indigenous people living in the central forest spine in Peninsular Malaysia: a mixed-methods study

“…Similar to the findings of this study, the study by Munajat et al conducted among Indigenous population in Kelantan showed almost half of the participants had adequate knowledge on the causes and symptoms of malaria [15]. Similarly, the results were comparable with other international studies which show good knowledge, attitude and practice towards the prevention of malaria [26,27,[31][32][33]. Again, these findings suggest the attention given to Malaria has reaped positive outcomes, however the rates of malaria reduction are not equally seen in developing countries worldwide.…”

Predictors of patients' knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) regarding uncomplicated malaria in the primary healthcare facilities of Plateau state, Nigeria

“…The descriptive statistics test for healthcare workers and patients had been reported [17, 18]. Tests for statistically significant differences and relationships for respondents' KAP on uncomplicated malaria management across their independent variables were conducted through inferential statistics.…”

“…Data for this study were from two sources titled ‘patients' knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) on uncomplicated malaria management in Plateau state, north-central Nigeria’ [17] and ‘assessment of primary healthcare workers' knowledge, attitudes, and practices on uncomplicated malaria management in Plateau state, Nigeria’ [18]. Besides logistic preference and the availability of a residing researcher, the disease prevalence justified the choice of Plateau state as the study area.…”

“…The influence of these independent variables on their practice and attitude outcomes was also assessed by including knowledge and practices as independent variables for attitudes outcomes, and knowledge and attitudes were included as independent variables for predicting practice outcomes. The levels of patients' knowledge were classified as good, moderate or poor based on their correct responses to the knowledge-related items which were assessed using three options of ‘yes’, ‘not sure’ or ‘no’; while their levels of attitudes and practices, in addition to healthcare workers' practices, were categorized based on their respective levels of agreements to the attitude- and practice-related statements which were scored on a five-point Likert scale [17, 18].…”

Knowledge and treatment seeking behaviour for malaria among some undergraduate students of the University of Jos

“…Respondents that answered between 8 and 10 items correctly had scores of between 8 and 10, and were categorised as having good knowledge, while those that got between 5 and 7 items right were allocated score of between 5 and 7 points, and were considered to have moderate knowledge. Similarly, those who got less than 5 of the items correctly had total scores of between less than 5 and were categorised as having a poor knowledge on uncomplicated malaria and its management (Jimam and Ismail, 2019). Treatment seeking behaviour of respondents was categorised as good, moderate, or poor as described by Ugo et al (2016): i.…”