Knowledge and practices concerning malaria in rural community of Pune district

Abstract

Background: India is in the malaria pre-elimination stage. It is particularly entrenched in low-income rural areas of eastern and northeastern states, but important foci are also present in the central and more arid western parts of the country. In this situation community-based strategies are important for malaria control. In order to intensify elimination activities we need to have a better awareness of malaria in these rural communities. Objective: To assess Knowledge and Practices (KAP) about malaria in a rural community of Pune District. Materials and Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted during January 2012 to April 2012 at the field practice area of a Medical College near Pune. All 246 households in the village were visited and the head of the household or other responsible adults were interviewed using a structured and pretested questionnaire. Results: Majority of the participants were aware about malaria symptoms 150 (60.9%) and transmission 206 (83.7%). A total of 202 (82.1%) subjects were aware that mosquitoes bites during dusk and night while only 78 (31.7%) participants had knowledge that malaria can be fatal. A total of 209 (85%) of people had opinion that malaria suspect should visit hospital for confirmation through blood testing while 179 (72.8) participants believed that malaria can be treated by drugs. 93.7% of participants were using one or other anti-adult mosquito measures whereas only 7.3% participants were employing engineering methods to prevent water stagnation. Conclusion: The knowledge, attitudes and practices of respondents in this survey about malaria were fairly good. It might be because of continuous IEC activities as RHTC being in the village. Still, there is scope for public health engineering; therefore further emphasis should be given to environmental modification and manipulation.

Keywords

• Kap
• malaria
• rural