Malaria and protective behaviours: is there a malaria trap?

Malaria Journal

Research

Jean Gaudart¹  Jean-Claude Berthélemy²  Josselin Thuilliez²  Ogobara Doumbo³ 

[1] Aix-Marseille University, UMR912 SESSTIM (INSERM IRD AMU), 13005, Marseille, France;CES-CNRS, Université Paris 1, Panthéon-Sorbonne, Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne, Maison des Sciences Economiques, 106-112 Boulevard de l'Hôpital, 75013, Paris, France;FERDI, Fondation pour les études et recherches sur le développement international, 63 boulevard François-Mitterrand, 63000, Clermont Ferrand, France;Malaria Research and Training Center (MRTC),Université du Mali, Faculté de Médecine, de Pharmacie et d’Odonto-Stomatologie, Département d’épidémiologie des affections parasitaires (DEAP). UMI3189, BP1805, Bamako, Mali;

关键词: Protective behaviours;    Poverty;    Economic epidemiology;    Malaria;    ITN;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1475-2875-12-200

 received in 2012-10-18, accepted in 2013-04-19,  发布年份 2013

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundIn spite of massive efforts to generalize efficient prevention, such as insecticide-treated mosquito nets (ITN) or long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs), malaria remains prevalent in many countries and ITN/LLINs are still only used to a limited extent.MethodsThis study proposes a new model for malaria economic analysis by combining economic epidemiology tools with the literature on poverty traps. A theoretical model of rational protective behaviour in response to malaria is designed, which includes endogenous externalities and disease characteristics. Survey data available for Uganda provide empirical support to the theory of prevalence-elastic protection behaviours, once endogeneity issues related to epidemiology and poverty are solved.ResultsTwo important conclusions emerge from the model. First, agents increase their protective behaviour when malaria is more prevalent in a society. This is consistent with the literature on "prevalence-elastic behaviour". Second, a ‘malaria trap’ defined as the result of malaria reinforcing poverty while poverty reduces the ability to deal with malaria can theoretically exist and the conditions of existence of the malaria trap are identified.ConclusionsThese results suggest the possible existence of malaria traps, which provides policy implications. Notably, providing ITN/LLINs at subsidized prices is not sufficient. To be efficient an ITN/LLINs dissemination campaigns should include incentive of the very poor for using ITN/LLINs.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Berthélemy et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2013. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.