Knowledge, Attitudes And Practices Towards Malaria Control In Mosocho Division Of Kisii County, Kenya

ABSTRACT

Malaria is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the world. Its

burden is greater felt in sub-Saharan Africa, with 15% of all disability adjusted life

years (DALYs) lost to the disease. Malaria affects more than 70% of its population.

The disease also remains a cause of much suffering due to social and economic

problems. The understanding of malaria transmission, recognition of signs and

symptoms, perception of cause, treatment seeking patterns and preventive measures

are important in malaria control. Malaria is the most prevalent disease in Mosocho

division rated at 55.4%.The study assessed knowledge, attitudes and practices

towards malaria control among household heads. The study also sought to establish

the relationship between knowledge, attitudes and practices. A cross sectional tudy

design was employed and it involved a sample size of 38j household heads. Multiage

sampling was used to select participants for the study and pre-tested structured

questionnaires were used to gather information from household heads. Interview

guides were used to collect data from key informants. The focus group discussions

that were used involved household heads that were randomly selected. Stati tical

Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) was used for data analysis. To establish

relationship between knowledge, attitude and practices, Bi-variate correlation was

used while the Chi-square test was used to determine differences in the responses

given. The findings revealed that 39.3% of the respondents had good knowledge,

49.0% had moderate knowledge and only 11.7% having poor knowledge. There was

a statistically significant distribution on the attitude score. Generally there a

moderate attitude with 46.9% respondents having scored above the mean attitude.

Practices towards malaria control were high with two hundred and forty five

respondents (63.8%) exhibiting above average practices towards malaria control.

One hundred and eleven respondents (28.9%) mentioned that some of their

household members failed to use mosquito nets every night. Reasons cited for

failure of using mosquito nets every night were hanging problems, irritation of skin

during contact, excessive heat inside the nets and lack of access. There was a weak

positive correlation between knowledge and practices, knowledge and attitudes and

there was no correlation between the attitudes and practices. The study recommends

that community health education programs should be sustained to ensure no rel pse

in the knowledge gained during all interventions geared to ards malaria control.

Emphasis should be laid on behavior change towards malaria control through

dissemination of tailored malaria messages that will positively change the

community attitudes. The messages should highlight the threat posed by malaria,

non-adherence of malaria prescription and the importance of every one participating

in malaria control interventions. Mosquito net hanging demonstrations should be

regularly carried out to enhance net-hanging skills. Community members should be

assured that mosquito nets are safe and effective