Community Participation in Malaria Control in Olorunda Local Government Area, Osun State, Southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

Malaria is a major health burden in developing countries and needs multiple strategies for its control. Community participation as one of the strategies for malaria control promotes self-awareness and confidence, causes the people to examine the problems and to think positively about the solutions. The study was aimed at assessing the level of community participation in malaria control in Olorunda local government area of Osogbo, Osun state, Nigeria. The study employed a cross-sectional descriptive design. Multi-staged sampling technique was used to choose 550 respondents. An intervieweradministered semi-structured questionnaire was used to elicit information from the respondents. Most of the respondents (65.0%) fell between the age ranges 20-39 years, with a mean age of 32.85 ± 12 years. Almost all (98.4%) respondents had knowledge of malaria with most of them (88.0%) correctly aware that mosquito bite could lead to malaria fever. Respondents stated that stagnant pool (92.6%) and refuse dump (89.0%) could predispose to malaria. About two-thirds (60.6%) of the respondents participated in the control of the breeding sites of mosquitoes on specific days for environmental sanitation. The association between community participation in health talk and community participation in malaria control was statistically significant (p<0.000). Although only 23.0% use ITN to protect themselves from mosquito bites, there was statistical significant association between awareness of respondents about ITN and its usage (p=0.003). Knowledge of respondents about malaria was high with majority participating in malaria control measures. However, the use of insecticide treated nets (ITN) was low. Therefore, it is recommended that continuous awareness creation on the use of ITN, and continued efforts aimed at elimination of breeding sites of mosquitoes should be adopted to achieve long term control of malaria.

Keywords: malaria control, community participation, urban, rural communities.