Perception about malaria and understanding of malaria prevention information in selected rural communities of Nigeria

Abstract Studies have shown that social and cultural factors affect how people perceive diseases. Thus, the area of perception about malaria has been the focus of several scholarly interventions. However there has been limited investigation of the perception of people and their understanding of malaria prevention information in Nigeria. This study, anchored on the Health Belief Model, investigated the perception of selected rural dwellers in Oyo and Osun states, Nigeria, about malaria and their understanding of available malaria prevention information provided by Roll Back Malaria (RBM) in the two states. The study used Survey, Focus Group Discussion and analysis of secondary data. There were 2120 survey respondents selected through multi-stage sampling across 10 local government areas of Oyo and Osun states and 96 participants in 16 focus groups involving men, women and expectant mothers. The result of this study indicates that although respondents had a good understanding of the symptoms of malaria, a significant percentage still had a wrong perception about its cause, respondents had low level of exposure to the malaria prevention information and therefore a low recall of the messages on malaria prevention. Pearson Chi-Square test indicated significant relations between perception of the rural dwellers and their utilization of malaria prevention information (p.value = 37.947, DF = 16, Asymp.Sig. (2-sided) = .002 while a test of correlation of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of information about malaria prevention indicated positive and statistically significant relationship between the perception about malaria and knowledge of people of respondents on information on malaria prevention (r = 0.212 p < 0.01). The study recommends state governments should direct their broadcast stations to air malaria prevention jingles regularly as a part of social service among other efforts at devoting more resources to communication activities on the disease.