Socio-economic determinants for malaria transmission risk in an endemic primary health centre in Assam, India

Infectious Diseases of Poverty

Vijay Veer²  PK Saikia¹  Bipul Rabha²  Sunil Dhiman²  Kavita Yadav² 

[1] Department of Zoology, Gauhati University, Guwahati, India;Defence Research Laboratory, Tezpur, Assam 784001, India

关键词: Assam;    Udalguri;    Awareness;    Socio-economic;    Malaria risk factors;   

Others  :  800806
DOI  :  10.1186/2049-9957-3-19

 received in 2013-11-27, accepted in 2014-06-17,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

Malaria is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in Northeast India. As there is limited information available on the potential influence of socio-economic variables on malaria risk, the present study was conducted to assess the influence of demographic factors, the socio-economic status, and knowledge, awareness and education on malaria occurrence.

Methods

Demographics, malaria knowledge and socio-economic variables were collected in four randomly selected health sub-centres of the Orang primary health centre in the Udalguri district, Assam and the association of malaria occurrence with different variables were analysed. The trend of malaria occurrence for different income groups, proximity to health centres and number of mosquito bites per day was also determined using the chi-square test. Relative risk (RR) for gender, house type, knowledge and use of bed nets was determined using Katz approximation.

Results

Out of the 71 household heads interviewed, 70.4% (50/71) were males. About half (54.9%, 39/71) of the participants had a history of malaria in the last two years, of which 64.1% (25/39) were males, while 35.9% (14/39) were females (χ² = 5.13; p = 0.02; RR = 1.79). Of the total population surveyed, 49.3% lived in bamboo houses and 35.2% lived at a distance of >3 km from the nearest health centre. The number of participants who had a history of malaria decreased with an increasing monthly income (p < 0.0001). Malaria occurrence was higher among the households living in bamboo houses (69.2%), as compared to Kucha houses (20.5%) and Pucca houses (10.3%). No significant association was observed between education level and malaria occurrence (p = 0.93). The participants who did not use bed nets regularly reported a high occurrence of malaria infection as compared to those who used bed nets everyday (p < 0.0001).

Conclusions

Lower income, house type, distance to health sub-centre, knowledge and awareness about malaria, number of mosquito bites per day and use of bed nets were positively associated with malaria occurrence. Increasing the number of health sub-centres close to rural areas, improving the economic status and increasing awareness about malaria prevention measures will thus help to reduce malaria-associated morbidities.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Yadav et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

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