Knowledge and behaviour as determinants of anti-malarial drug use in a peri-urban population from malaria holoendemic region of western Kenya

Malaria Journal

Research

Evans Raballah¹  Collins Ouma²  Walter GZO Jura³  Carren A Watsierah⁴  Dan Kaseje⁴  Benard Abong'o⁴ 

[1] Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Kenyatta University, P.O. Box 43844-00100, Nairobi, GPO, Kenya;Department of Biomedical Sciences and Technology, Maseno University, Private Bag, Maseno, Kenya;University of New Mexico/Centre for Global Health Research, Kenya Medical Research Institute, P.O. Box 1578-40100, Kisumu, Kenya;Department of Zoology, Maseno University, Private Bag, Maseno, Kenya;Great Lakes University of Kisumu, P.O. Box 2224-40100, Kisumu, Kenya;

关键词: Malaria;    Malaria Transmission;    Indoor Residual Spray;    Amodiaquine;    Malaria Endemic Region;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1475-2875-10-99

 received in 2011-01-07, accepted in 2011-04-20,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe appropriate use of anti-malarial drugs determines therapeutic efficacy and the emergence and spread of drug-resistant malaria. Strategies for improving drug compliance require accurate information about current practices at the consumer level. This is to ascertain that the currently applied new combination therapy to malaria treatment will achieve sustained cure rates and protection against parasite resistance. Therefore, this cross-sectional study was designed to determine knowledge and behaviour of the consumers in households (n = 397) in peri-urban location in a malaria holoendemic region of western Kenya.MethodsThe knowledge and behaviour associated with anti-malarial use were evaluated. Using clusters, a questionnaire was administered to a particular household member who had the most recent malaria episode (within <2 weeks) and used an anti-malarial for cure. Mothers/caretakers provided information for children aged <13 years.ResultsConsumers' knowledge on dosage and duration/frequency demonstrated that only 29.4% used the correct artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) dosage. Most respondents who used quinine identified the correct duration of use (96.4%) since its administration was entirely at health facilities. To assess behaviours during use of anti-malarial drugs, respondents were stratified into those who took drugs with prescription (39.4%) and without prescription (61.6%). For those without prescription, the reasons given were; procedure of acquisition less costly (39.0%), took same drug for similar symptoms (23.0%), not satisfied with health services (15.5%), neighbour/friend/relative previously taken the same drug (12.5%) and health institution was far from their location (10%).ConclusionMajority of consumers in the study area were knowledgeable on the symptoms of malaria. In addition, majority acquired ineffective anti-malarial drugs for treatment and reported sub-optimal treatment regimens with the currently recommended drugs. Furthermore, behaviours which constrain the successful up-scaling of ACT were common, creating a challenge in the desire to turn efficacy to effectiveness of the combination therapy programme. It will be important to direct and focus interventions in creating awareness on the importance of using recommended drugs to lessen the use of less efficacious anti-malarials. In addition, the consumers need to be educated on the importance of drug adherence in such areas to reduce the emergence and spread of drug-resistant malaria.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Watsierah et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011. 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.