Prevalence of and factors associated with malaria in children under five years of age in Malawi, using malaria indicator survey data

Abstract

Background: Malaria remains a public health problem in developing countries and Malawi is no different. Although there has been an improvement in reducing malaria in Malawi, it remains a problem, especially in children less than five years old. The primary objective of the study was to assess whether socio-economic, geographic and demographic factors are associated with malaria, using the generalized additive mixed model (GAMM). Data and methodology: The study used a 2017 dataset from the Malawi Malaria Indicator Survey (MMI) with a total number of 2724 children under five years old. The study also utilized the GAMM to analyze data. The outcome was that either the child had malaria or did not, as detected using the malaria Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) (Ayele et al., 2014a). Results: In this study, more than 37 % of the total number of children who were tested showed a positive malaria result. In addition, the results from this study using GAMM indicated that anaemia, mother's education level, wealth index, child's age, the altitude of the place of residence, region, place of residence, toilet facility and electricity were significantly associated with a positive malaria RDT. Conclusion:The study revealed that socio-economic, geographical and demographic variables are the key factors in improving malaria vectors in children. Improving income levels and supporting the poorer rural community mostly from the Central Region would be a great achievement in reducing malaria vectors in Malawi. In addition, improving health care in rural areas, especially at higher altitudes, would contribute to controlling malaria and reducing anaemia.

Non-linear link between temperature difference and COVID-19: Excluding the effect of population density

“…Based on the VIF test, we found that the nonlinear feature is more significant about the association with meteorological factors and COVID-19 cases. GAMM is used to explore the nonlinear relationship between weather factors and health conditions [21,22]. Since temperature may last for several days and the incubation period of COVID-19 varies from 1 to 14 days, we used GAMM to test the moving average hysteresis effect of temperature differences (lag0-4).…”

Modelling for Anaemia and Malnutrition in Children Less Than Five Years of Age in Lesotho: A Case Study of a Cross-Sectional Dataset Using Multivariate Joint Model.

“…Only children aged 0-59 months from the mothers who stayed in or visited the household the night before the 2014 survey were included. The present study used the children's file record and a total weighted number of 3112 children were drawn as a sample size to demonstrate a national-level representation (MOHSW and ICF, 2016;Gaston and Ramroop, 2020). The weighted samples were used to achieve the standard that is descriptive of the nation and accounts for the complex sample design from the data.…”

“…The population in each region did have not the same weight and the individuals surveyed in each region should contribute equivalently to the size of the total number in each region. To overcome this problem of unweighted, the present study used a weighted sample size (MOHSW and ICF, 2016;Gaston and Ramroop, 2020).…”

“…These variables were also included in previous studies on childhood anaemia or malnutrition such as the study by Gaston et al (2018). These variables comprised the age of the child in months; sex of the child; mother's education level; type of place of residence; whether or not household had electricity; main material of the floor; main material of the wall; main material of the roof; wealth index; child's birth weight; had fever in last two weeks; had diarrhoea recently; had cough in last two weeks; received vitamin A in last 6 months; birth order; mother's BMI; mother's education level; visited health facility; toilet facility; and type of drinking water (Gaston et al, 2018;Gaston and Ramroop, 2020;Letuka and Frade, 2020).…”

In Vivo Antimalarial Activity of Ethanol Extracts of the Leaves of Three Plant Species Collected From Yayu Coffee Forest Biosphere Reserve, Southwest Ethiopia

“…Malaria remains one of the most significant causes of morbidity and mortality in resource poor countries especially in sub-Sahara African children under the age of five years and pregnant women (1,2). According to WHO malaria report in 2015, malaria was prevalent in more than 90 countries of the tropical and semitropical world (Africa, Amazon, central and southern America; central, south and south east Asia; Pacific) that are home to more than half of the world's people and it is still a persistent problem in most of these areas (3).…”