Knowledge, attitude and practice in high endemic settings for malaria: a cross-sectional study in a rural community in central Mozambique.

BACKGROUND

Malaria remains a public health threat globally, mainly in African countries. Despite the progress made over the years, its control and elimination by 2030 appear to be a challenge. The community perspective on factors contributing to malaria burden is essential to develop preventive measures adapted to local contexts. Understanding the transmission rates, symptoms, prevention and treatment of malaria are essential for a population to effectively control the disease. This study assessed the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of Tambai residents to identify the possible gaps related to high malaria burden in a study implementation area.

METHODS

This was a cross-sectional study design with a qualitative approach held in Sofala province, Nhamatanda district, Tambai community. This KAP study was carried out before the intervention in May 2021 and after in June 2022. All heads of households from the study implementation area were surveyed using a semi-structured questionnaire. Data were processed in Microsoft excel, exported and analysed in Statistical Packages for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 29.0.

RESULTS

The knowledge of the heads of households on symptoms, mode of transmission, prevention and treatment of malaria was high before and after the intervention (149; 96.8%) and (143; 91.1%), respectively. Heads of households show no differences on KAP regarding symptoms, mode of transmission, prevention and treatment of malaria when intervention and control or before and after intervention were compared.

CONCLUSION

Both intervention and control groups showed high KAP before and after intervention, suggesting that the implementation of the REPELMALARIA project did not have an either positive nor negative impact on KAP scores. These findings suggests that the higher malaria cases in the study area are not related to the malaria knowledge, attitude and practice of householders.

TRIAL REGISTRATION: This results are from the main clinical trial registed in ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT04419766.