The Perception and Behavioral Attitude to Malaria of Non-parental Care-givers Living on an Atlantic Ocean Coastal Community in Nigeria: Paper 1

Abstract

Introduction: Malaria is still both a health and an economic burden to various communities in sub-Saharan Africa. Few studies have been conducted on perception of and behavioral pattern of young care-givers to malaria, especially in the populated communities along the Atlantic Ocean coastline in Nigeria.

Objective: The objective of this study was to assess perception and health seeking attitude of young caregivers who brought children to a malaria survey at Iyaafin, a community lying close to the Atlantic Ocean in Badagry Local Government Area (LGA), Lagos State of Nigeria.

Materials and Methods: All, apart from father or mother, who brought children to the study site for malaria evaluation at Iyaafin, Badagry LGA, between May and August 2014, were interviewed using an instrument of semi-structured questionnaire. Data was analyzed using NCSS21 statistical software.

Results: Of the 129 respondents, 66 (51.2%) were males and 63 (48.8%) females with an overall mean (±sd) age of 24.5(5.5), mostly (62, 48.1%) students, mostly (71, 55.0%) having secondary education with a high proportion (77, 59.7%) earning <N5,000 (US$33.3) monthly. A high proportion (114, 87.9%) of respondents identified malaria as the most common disease in the community and an equally high proportion (127, 98.4%) identified mosquito bites as the cause of malaria. Overall, 36 (27.9%) respondents had fever within 1 month prior to the study, including those currently having fever and one person that claimed he had fever everyday. In all, 33 (91.7%) of this 36 respondents had just one episode of fever and only 2 (5.6%) had more than two fever episodes. Significant but negative correlations were observed between age (r = -0.28, P-value = 0.001) on one hand and marital status (r = -0.25, R2 = 0.06, P-value = 0.004) on the other, with duration since last fever episode. In all, females were approximately twice as likely to visit health facility during febrile episode than males (χ²=1.55, P-value=0.21, OR=1.75, 95% CI=0.72, 4.25) while males were 1.7 times more likely to take herbal medicinal tea during febrile episode (χ²=2.16, P-value=0.14, OR=1.73, 95% CI=0.83, 3.61.

Conclusion: Non-parental care-givers living on the Atlantic Ocean coastal community in Lagos were mostly students and single with low economic power. Malaria was perceived as the most common disease in the community. Young care-givers most take traditional herbal medicine during febrile illness.