Socio-demographic and household attributes may not necessarily influence malaria: evidence from a cross sectional study of households in an urban slum setting of Chennai, India

Abstract

BackgroundHousehold and environmental factors are reported to influence the malaria endemicity of a place. Hence, a careful assessment of these factors would, potentially help in locating the possible areas under risk to plan and adopt the most suitable and appropriate malaria control strategies.MethodsA cross-sectional household survey was carried out in the study site, Besant Nagar, Chennai, through random sampling method from February 2014 to February 2015. A structured interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to assess selected variables of demography, structural particulars of a household, usage of repellents, animals on site, presence of breeding habitats and any mosquito/vector breeding in the household, malaria/vector control measures undertaken by government in each houses. The data was collected through one to one personal interview method, statistically analysed overall and compared between the households/people infected with malaria within a period of 1 year and their non-infected counterparts of the same area.ResultsPresence of malaria was found to be significantly associated with the occupation, number of inhabitants, presence of a separate kitchen, availability of overhead tanks and cisterns, immatures of vector mosquitoes, presence of mosquito breeding and type of roof structures (p < 0.05). However, age, gender, usage of repellents, animals on site, number of breeding habitats or detection of vector breeding did not significantly associate with the malaria incidence/prevalence.ConclusionsThe survey revealed various demographic, household and environmental factors likely to associate with the malaria incidence/prevalence in an urban slum of Chennai. The socio-demographic and household variables have revealed disparities in malaria infection from the present cross sectional study. The absence of significant association with many parameters indicates the probable role of other confounding factors which influence the malaria prevalence.

Socio-economic determinants of malaria in tribal dominated Mandla district enrolled in Malaria Elimination Demonstration Project in Madhya Pradesh

“…Similar findings have also been reported by many other earlier studies, even though using different proxies, i.e. including the number of people in the house [ 15 , 26 , 31 , 40 ] and the number of people per room [ 42 ]. This could be because large families are more likely to have younger children in the family which are a high risk group.…”

“…The division of labour as a result of gender roles may play a significant part in determining exposure to mosquitoes [ 33 ]. Many studies reported a similar risk for both genders [ 15 , 16 , 34 ]. However, some studies reported females to have a higher risk because they are primarily responsible for many household activities [ 35 ]and they start their day early and before dawn to perform household chores [ 36 ], but others reported males having greater occupation risk of contracting malaria [ 37 , 38 ].…”

Blood Cell Profiling of Malaria Patients Attending Gaya General Hospital, Kano State, Northern Nigeria

“…Moreover, we found no association between malaria prevalence and educational level, marital status and occupation of the study subjects. These sociodemographic factors were similarly reported in several studies [14,15] not influencing malaria prevalence.…”

A Need to Spread Awareness to Slums in Chennai About the Pandemic Covid-19 - A Review.

“…Due to a lack of healthcare facilities, many have pre-existing medical conditions putting them at high risk of dying or developing serious complications if they get sick with the virus. (Thomas et al, 2018) The social isolation measure is devastating for the many slum dwellers where physical space is scarce and many rely on daily wage labor for survival. (Marimuthu, 2016) The general hand-to-mouth existence of the people has only become worse with the effect of COVID -19.…”