Illness-related practices for the management of childhood malaria among the Bwatiye people of north-eastern Nigeria (original) (raw)
Related papers
Mothers Management of Malaria Fever among Under-Five Nomadic Fulani Children of Northeastern Nigeria
American Journal of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, 2013
Malaria is a deadly disease which is spread widely in the tropical regions of the world with holoendemicity in SubSaharan Africa. An investigation of fever management among mothers of under-five children was carried out in nomadic Fulani settlements of Adamawa State Nigeria. Management of fever was assessed through interviews and questionnaires. Nearly half of the nomadic Fulani mothers (49.47%) did not take any action within 24 hours when their children had fever. This was not significantly different (p < 0.05) with regard to age, clan and parity of the mothers. The duration between mother’s recognition and management of fever showed that almost half (49.6%) of the mothers did not take time into consideration during intervention of fever. Mothers of under-five who acted within 24 hours of noticing of fever in their children were 30.6%, while those who acted after 24 hours were 12.0%. There was no significant difference (p < 0.05) between mothers recognition of fever and manag...
2013
Malaria is a deadly disease which is spread widely in the tropical regions of the world with holoendemicity in SubSaharan Africa. An investigation of fever management among mothers of under-five children was carried out in nomadic Fulani settlements of Adamawa State Nigeria. Management of fever was assessed through interviews and questionnaires. Nearly half of the nomadic Fulani mothers (49.47%) did not take any action within 24 hours when their children had fever. This was not significantly different (p < 0.05) with regard to age, clan and parity of the mothers. The duration between mother’s recognition and management of fever showed that almost half (49.6%) of the mothers did not take time into consideration during intervention of fever. Mothers of under-five who acted within 24 hours of noticing of fever in their children were 30.6%, while those who acted after 24 hours were 12.0%. There was no significant difference (p < 0.05) between mothers recognition of fever and manag...
European Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2013
Background: Malaria disease, a preventable and treatable disease has continued to plague under-five children in rural Nigeria. Unhealthy health practices contribute to increased morbidity from malaria especially in a resource-poor setting. Aim: This study was aimed at determining the prevalence of malaria among the under-five Nigerian children in a resource-poor setting of a rural hospital in Eastern Nigeria and evaluating the health practices of their mothers as regards home antimalaria and herbal medication practices, awareness and use of insecticide treated nets (ITNs) and the practice of abdominal wall scarification. Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive hospital-based study carried out on 196 out of 244 mothers of under-five children who were treated for malaria and met the selection criteria. The mothers were interviewed using a pretested, structured researcher administered questionnaire which elicited information on home antimalaria and herbal medication practices, awareness and use of insecticide treated nets (ITNs) and the practice of abdominal wall scarification. The period of assessment was in the previous six months for ITNs usage. An under-five child was defined to have malaria if the mother gave complaints of fever, vomiting and other symptoms suggestive of malaria, had body temperature exceeding 37.5 o C with the asexual forms of Plasmodium falciparum detected on the peripheral blood film. The data collected included age, sex and diagnosis made. Results: One hundred and ninety six (80.3%) out of a total of 244 under-five children were treated for malaria. Of the 196 under-five children; 128 (65.3%) had home antimalaria treatment, 53(27.0%) received herbal remedies while 15 (7.7%) had antibiotics. The awareness of ITNs was 87.2% while user rate was 11.7%. Eighty three (42.4%) had upper abdominal wall scarification marks. Conclusion: This study has shown that malaria still constitutes a significant health problem in the study area and home treatment of malaria with antimalaria drugs or local herbal remedies and abdominal wall scarification were practised. The awareness of ITNs was high but user rate was low. There is urgent need for effective methods to enlighten primary child care givers (mothers) on appropriate under-five child health practices that are safe, timely, effective and under-five child health friendly and centred.
2021
Malaria remains a major health challenge in Nigeria despite efforts at reducing its prevalence. Previous studies on malaria focused mainly on the biomedical aspects with little attention given to the social characteristics influencing malaria management among mothers as primary caregivers of under-five children. This study, therefore, investigated perception and experience of childhood malaria management among mothers of under-five children in Osogbo Metropolis classified in literature as area with high childhood malaria prevalence. The Health Belief Model was adopted as theoretical framework, while the cross-sectional survey research design was employed using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The study was conducted among selected mothers of under-five children using a multi-stage sampling procedure. Cochrane’s formula was used to determine the sample size of 561 respondents used. A structured questionnaire was administered on mothers to elicit information on socio-demogra...
Malaria is a deadly disease which is spread widely in the tropical regions of the world with holoendemicity in Sub-Saharan Africa. An investigation of fever management among mothers of under-five children was carried out in nomadic Fulani settlements of Adamawa State Nigeria. Management of fever was assessed through interviews and questionnaires. Nearly half of the nomadic Fulani mothers (49.47%) did not take any action within 24 hours when their children had fever. This was not significantly different (p < 0.05) with regard to age, clan and parity of the mothers. The duration between mother's recognition and management of fever showed that almost half (49.6%) of the mothers did not take time into consideration during intervention of fever. Mothers of under-five who acted within 24 hours of noticing of fever in their children were 30.6%, while those who acted after 24 hours were 12.0%. There was no significant difference (p < 0.05) between mothers' recognition of fever and management based on age, clan and parity. Home management of fever by most nomadic Fulani mothers was not satisfactory. Similarly, timely intervention of fever was not considered by most nomadic Fulani mothers. There is the need for appropriate education and adoption of new strategies for timely intervention of disease causing fever among the nomadic Fulani population.
Background: Malaria remains a huge public health problem in Sub-Saharan African countries and accounts for 10% of its disease burden even though it is both preventable and curable. Aim: To assess the knowledge of malaria and practices related to its prevention and treatment among the women of Kuje Area Council in the FCT. Methods: It was a comparative community intervention study conducted among 232 mothers/ caregivers of under-five children selected through a two staged sampling technique by balloting in Kuje and Rubochi community in Kuje Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory. Result: At baseline only 1.8% in the intervention group had good knowledge of the cause of malaria while 90.2% had fair knowledge which improved significantly (p=0.013) after the intervention. Good knowledge of the preventive measures was also poor (5.4%) in the intervention group but increased significantly after 5 months of intervention. However, the control group showed no change. Most mothers used Chloroquine to treat malaria in both the intervention and control groups. This however declined from 72.2% to 53.6% in the intervention group. Conclusion: Mothers of children under five in Kuje had poor knowledge of the cause of malaria and its prevention method, and were not using the recommended drug by the Federal Government of Nigeria (ACTs) for the treatment of uncomplicated malaria. However adequate health education to women especially in the language they understood effectively increased their knowledge and improved the practice of malaria treatment.
Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care, 2015
Introduction: Regular evaluations of communities' understanding of malaria-related practices are essential for control of the disease in endemic areas. This study was aimed at investigating the perceptions, prevention and treatments practices for childhood malaria by mothers in rural communities. Materials and Methods: We conducted a community-based cross-sectional study at rural communities of Ise-Orun local Government area, Nigeria. We randomly sampled 422 mothers of children less than 5 years and administered a validated questionnaire to assess their perceptions and practices relating to childhood malaria. We used a 10-point scale to assess perception and classified it as good (≥5) or poor (<5). Predictive factors for poor perceptions were identified using logistic regression. Results: Approximately 51% of the mothers had poor perception and 14.2% ascribed malaria illness to mosquito bite only. Majority (85.8%) of the mothers practiced malaria preventive measures, including: Insecticide treated nets (70.0%), chemoprophylaxis (20.1%) and environmental sanitation (44.8%). Of the 200 mothers whose children had malaria fever within the 3 months prior to the study visits, home treatment was adopted by 87.5%. Local herbal remedies were combined with orthodox medicine in the treatments of malaria for 91.5% of the children. The main reasons for not seeking medical treatment at existing formal health facilities were "high cost", "challenges of access to facilities" and "mothers' preference for herbal remedies". Lack of formal education was the only independent predictor of poor malaria perceptions among mothers (OR = 1.91, 95% CI = 1.18, 3.12). Conclusions: Considerable misconceptions about malaria exist among mothers in the rural communities. The implications for malaria control in holoendemic areas are highlighted.