Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Regarding Awareness of Malaria Infection among the Adult Population of Rural and Urban Areas.

ABSTRACT

Background: Malaria remains one of the most serious global health problems and is not only a major cause of suffering and death, but also the cause of many socioeconomic problems. The present study was done to study knowledge, attitude and practice of general public towards malaria infection. Methods: A total of 576 individuals had taken participation in this particular study. The study was done at SMBT medical college, Ghoti, Nashik. Out of these, 258 were from rural area and 318 from urban area. A total of 20 questionnaires were formulated for this study. Responses of all the participants were collected, tabulated and analyzed using IBM SPSS statistics version 20 using student’s t test. Results: On comparison of the knowledge, attitude and practice scores of the urban and rural population, it was found that the scores of urban population was higher than that of the rural population and the difference was found to be statistically significant. (Student’s t test, p<0.001). Conclusion: The findings of this study indicate that rural communities have less knowledge on malaria transmission, symptoms, and preventive measures. There is also a need for district health departments to improve availability of information about malaria through rural dispensaries and primary health centers.