KNOWLEDGE, PERCEPTION AND SELF–MEDICATION PRACTICES FOR MANAGEMENT OF MALARIA AMONG UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS OF UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN, NIGERIA

Abstract

Malaria affects the health and wealth of nations and individuals alike. In Africa today, malaria is understood to be both a disease of poverty and a cause of poverty. One of the important items of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is to halt and afterwards begins to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases by 2015. In other to achieve the goal of halting malaria transmission, there is need for the general populace to indulge in practices that will have strong influence on malaria control. Practices like understanding the importance of diagnosis before treatment, need for accurate dosing and appropriate drug use and understanding malaria transmission. Thus, the knowledge, perception and self-medication practices for management of malaria among undergraduate of University of Ibadan was explored by this study. A cross-sectional study was conducted among consenting 302 students using a multistage proportionate sampling technique. A validated self administered semi–structured questionnaire used for the data collection which included a 51-point knowledge scale on malaria and malaria medicine and a 10-point scale on perceptions relating to malaria, 39 points and above was categorised as good scores, 26-38 point was categorised as fair score and <25 as poor score and 10 point perception scale was used for the perception scoring, 5-0 point was regarded as fairly favorable score and 6-10 points was regarded as highly favorable score, data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi-square with level of significance set at p=0.05 level of significance. Respondents’ age was 21.5±3.4years and male accounted for 63.6% of the sample. Majority of the respondents were Christians (84.0%) with 2.3% as Eckankar. The knowledge score of respondents was 22.2± 8.2, (5.6%) had good level of knowledge, while (51.3%) had fair knowledge. Few (14.6%) of the respondents were able to correctly mention plasmodium as a cause of malaria. Very few (14.6%) believed that dirty environment could cause malaria. Almost all the respondents (95.0%) were unaware that malaria could be transmitted from mother to baby during pregnancy, awareness about arteminsinin based combination therapy was low (44.4%). Less than half of the respondents (41.4%) stated that chloroquine is still very effective for malaria treatment. Majority of the respondents (72.5%) perceived that it is not only students who lived off campus that needs to be worried about malaria. Few respondents (11.6%) believed that malaria goes away on its own even if not treated, however (19.9%) perceived herbs and concoction to be more effective for treating malaria. Majority of the respondents reported to have treated themselves without seeing a health worker. Coartem was the most commonly used medicine among the respondents, many of them reported that they usually did not complete their malaria dosage. Hence health education, counseling and advocacy were recommended on malaria treatment and management.