Abstract:
The study sought to establish the association between community attitude towards
malaria control strategies and incidence of malaria. The objectives were: To describe the
socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents, to assess the community’s attitude
towards the available malaria control strategies in Mpumude Division, to find out the
incidence of malaria in Mpumude Division, to establish the association between
community attitude towards malaria control strategies and malaria incidence in Mpumude
Division
A cross sectional and correlation survey was conducted using both quantitative
and qualitative approaches. A simple random sampling technique was used to select 351
household heads. A structured questionnaire was the main tool used supplemented by
interview guide.
The findings show many [169(50.9%)] were male, [176(53%)] had average
household size of 3 – 5 people. Overall community attitude towards malaria control
strategies was high (2.91, std. = 0.57), incidence of malaria was high were majority
[273(82.2%)] reported cases of malaria in the last four months. The study showed
significant association between household income [p = 0.027, OR (0.124 – 0.804) =
0.527], house wall type [p = 0.021, OR (0.0.123 – 0.840) = 0.322], seeking diagnostic
and malaria treatment [p = 0.016, OR (0.124– 0.804) = 0.316] and malaria incidence.
It was recommended that Malaria control interventions should focus on
community attitude towards seeking diagnostic and malaria treatment, improving
household income and house walls.
