Behavior of people with respect to malaria in endemic areas with different levels of malaria transmission.

ABSTRACT

The present survey was carried out in two villages of the same malaria endemicity but different levels of transmission in Lamae District, Chumphon Province, southern Thailand with the aim to study whether behavior of people to malaria was similar or not. The total populations in low (village 11) and high (village 13) transmission areas were surveyed twice during low (February 1990) and high (June 1990) transmission periods. All subjects were interviewed by trained interviewers using a structured interview form. Among 410 and 614 people in villages 11 and 13, respectively, it was revealed that during the low transmission period behavior related to chemoprophylaxis and use of bed nets was similar in both villages, whereas risk behavior of night work was significantly higher in village 11 than village 13. This was likely due to their different principal occupations farming of rubber plantation in village 11 and of coffee plantation in village 13. Concerning pattern of seeking malaria treatment, the malaria clinic and the district hospital were the common places attended by people in both villages. During the second survey in high transmission period, a cohort of 277 in village 11 and 430 in village 13 were available for follow up to study changes in their behavior between low and high transmission seasons. There were significant decrements related to night work and significant increments related to bed net use in both villages.