Revista de Saúde e Informática Médica

Community Health Workers’ Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices Regarding Malaria Control and Prevention in Bamenda, Cameroon: A Community Based Study

Abstract

Dickson Shey N, Jules Clement AN, Muluh N, Amos Wung B* and Katte Ivo K

Background: Malaria is a major public health problem with about 3.4 billion people at risk worldwide. Community health workers (CHWs) are being used to control and prevent malaria in Cameroonian communities. This study’s objectives were to assess CHWs’ knowledge, attitudes and practices and the correlates of CHWs’ knowledge regarding malaria prevention and control.

Methods: A community based cross sectional survey involving 135 CHWs was conducted at the Bamenda Health District from March - May 2015. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire and analysed using Epi Info version 3.5.4.

Result: All the participants had heard of malaria, 97.8% of them knew malaria was transmitted by mosquitos, 95.5% of them knew the most common sign/symptom of malaria was high temperature/fever and 98.5% of the CHWs knew that sleeping under bed nets protects against mosquito bites. The attitudes of CHWs regarding malaria prevention and control were somewhat good with 97.0% of them believing malaria is a life threatening disease and 92.6% of them believing it is best treated in a hospital. Few CHWs (4.0%) believed that malaria is caused by witchcraft and 3.3% of the CHWs think malaria is best treated by traditional doctors with herbs. CHWs’ practices regarding malaria were also good with most CHWs involved in distribution of nets (82.7%). Only being single had a statistically significant association with having knowledge on malaria prevention and control.

Conclusion: Participants knowledge on malaria was high and their attitudes and practices regarding malaria control were also good. Only being single had a statistically significant association to having knowledge on malaria prevention and control. CHWs still need some education and training on malaria prevention/control to provide missing knowledge. Further studies involving larger samples of CHWs for longer periods of time need to be conducted to find other correlates of CHWs’ knowledge on malaria prevention and control.