Department of Entomology and Wildlife, School of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Ghana.
Malar J. 2010 Sep 15;9:256. doi: 10.1186/1475-2875-9-256.
Since 2001, there has been a tremendous increase in number of households protected by ITN and IRS in Ghana. However, there has not been evidence of a reduction in malaria cases as expected and reported deaths have rather increased since 2007. As a result, this study was undertaken to get a better understanding of perceptions of malaria, knowledge on mosquitoes and the value attached to ITNs among secondary and tertiary students in Cape Coast.
Structured questionnaires were administered randomly to gather data on demographic characteristics of students, knowledge of mosquitoes and ITNs and attitude towards the use of ITN in seven public high schools and four tertiary institutions in Cape Coast metropolis. In addition, curriculums of science courses common to all students from junior high school to the university were carefully examined.
A total of 492 students took part in this study and more than 90% of them had high knowledge of malaria transmission and ITN, but little knowledge of mosquito life history. Only 1% in secondary and 2.1% in tertiary institutions had seen or knew about all the development stages of mosquitoes. In high school and tertiary institutions, 24.2% and 10.8% of respondents, respectively, were able to mention other genera of mosquitoes, apart from Anopheles. Though 93.9% in senior high school and 86.7% in the tertiary institutions knew that ITNs are either used to protect oneself from mosquito bites or to prevent malaria, 32.7% of the respondents in secondary and 21.9% in tertiary institutions who owned ITN did not use them.
The study reveals that respondents did not have adequate knowledge on the biology and behaviour of mosquitoes. This appears to weaken their knowledge of the link between the use of ITN and malaria control; the effect of this is that a significant number owned ITNs but did not use them. The implication is that if people will really accept and use ITN or other mosquito control interventions, then just creating awareness of those interventions is not enough but people should also be educated on the life history of mosquitoes and on the mechanism of the control strategies. This can be effectively done through the formal education system.
自 2001 年以来，加纳使用 ITN 和 IRS 的家庭数量大幅增加。然而，并没有证据表明疟疾病例如预期那样减少，自 2007 年以来报告的死亡人数反而有所增加。因此，这项研究旨在更好地了解喀土穆中学生和大学生对疟疾的看法、对蚊子的认识以及对 ITN 的重视。
采用随机结构问卷收集数据，内容包括学生的人口统计学特征、蚊子和 ITN 的知识以及对 ITN 使用的态度，在喀土穆大都市的七所公立高中和四所大专院校进行。此外，还仔细检查了所有从初中到大学的学生共有的科学课程的课程。
共有 492 名学生参加了这项研究，其中 90%以上的学生对疟疾传播和 ITN 有很高的认识，但对蚊子的生活史了解甚少。只有 1%的中学生和 2.1%的大学生见过或知道蚊子的所有发育阶段。在高中和大专院校，分别有 24.2%和 10.8%的受访者除了按蚊外，还能提到其他蚊子属。尽管 93.9%的高中生和 86.7%的大学生知道 ITN 是用来保护自己免受蚊子叮咬或预防疟疾的，但在中学生中，有 32.7%的受访者和在大专院校中，21.9%的受访者拥有 ITN 但并不使用。
研究表明，受访者对蚊子的生物学和行为没有足够的了解。这似乎削弱了他们对使用 ITN 与疟疾控制之间联系的认识；其结果是，相当多的人拥有 ITN 但不使用它们。这意味着，如果人们真的接受和使用 ITN 或其他控制蚊子的干预措施，那么仅仅提高对这些干预措施的认识是不够的，还应该教育人们了解蚊子的生活史和控制策略的机制。这可以通过正规教育系统有效地进行。
