MALARIA PREVENTION, CONTROL AND TREATMENT PRACTICES AMONG TAI SOLARIN UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION STAFF AND STUDENTS RESIDENT IN IJAGUN COMMUNITY, OGUN STATE, NIGERIA
ABSTRACT
The malaria prevalence in Nigeria is high despite numerous interventions to date. The study examined malaria prevention, control and treatment practices among Tai Solarin University of Education staff and students resident in Ijagun Community.
A cross sectional survey design was adopted. Data was collected from 286 students, 31 academic staff and 67 non-academic staff. Most respondents were between 18 and 22 years old. More than half of the respondents (57.8%) had either B.sc or HND educational qualification. The instrument for data collection was a closed-ended questionnaire. Ethical approval was obtained from Babcock University Health Research Ethics Committee (BUHREC). The data obtained from the study was coded and analysed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 21.0.
Findings showed that respondents had knowledge mean score of 6.91 ± 2.05, attitudinal score of 12.96 ± 2.18 and perceptions mean score of 17.42 ± 3.66.
In conclusion, poor treatment, prevention and control of malaria have been attributed to individual’s knowledge, attitude and perception. Public health intervention needs to be implemented in improving attitude and perception of non-educated individuals as evident from this study that educated individuals exhibit high level of perception and positive attitudinal disposition towards treatment, prevention and control of malaria. Education intervention aimed at improving knowledge of malaria transmission is very important in control of malaria as this is a predicting factor to behavioural change. There is need for a similar study to be conducted among non-educated individuals as result from this study may only be centered around educated personnel hence the varying result in comparison to other studies.
Keywords: Prevalence, Incidence, Prevention, Control, Practices and Treatment Practices of Malaria.