Department of Medical Laboratory Science, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Arba Minch University, Arba Minch, Ethiopia.
Global Health Institute, Antwerp University, Antwerp, Belgium.
PLoS One. 2020 Oct 13;15(10):e0239728. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0239728. eCollection 2020.
School-aged children become a highly vulnerable group for malaria, yet they are less likely to use malaria prevention interventions. Previous studies exploring perception on cause of malaria mainly focused on pregnant mothers or parents of children under age five years. Exploring parent's perception on cause of malaria and their experiences on the prevention of malaria and associated challenges among school-aged children is important to develop a malaria prevention education package for school-aged children to reduce malaria and malaria related morbidities among school-aged children.
A descriptive qualitative study is conducted in Kutcha district by recruiting 19 parents of school-aged children for semi-structured interviews, 6 key informants and 6 focus group discussion which consists of parents, health development army and health extension workers. A semi-structured interview guide is used to guide the interview process. The collected data is analyzed thematically with a focus on the three major areas of concern: perceived cause of malaria, experience of malaria prevention and challenges of bed net use for prevention of malaria.
Five causes of malaria were identified, namely hunger, mosquito bite, exposure to hot sunshine, poor sanitation and hygiene and eating some sweet foods and unripe maize. Participants perceived that eating sweet foods and unripe maize lead to enlargement of the spleen that ends in malaria while poor hygiene and sanitation leads to either development of the ova of mosquito and the landing of the housefly to contaminate food for consumption. The experiences of malaria prevention were largely influenced by their perceived cause of malaria. The malaria prevention measures undertaken by parents were vectors control measures, homemade herbal remedies and restricting children from eating sweet foods. The challenges of malaria prevention by using bed nets were related to a negative attitude, sleeping behaviors of children; use of bed nets for unintended purposes, shortage of bed nets and delays in the distribution of bed nets.
There were misconceptions about the cause of malaria and associated experiences of malaria prevention. Control of malaria among school-aged children need health education targeting the challenges and correcting identified misconceptions by parents in Kutcha district and in other similar settings.
学龄儿童成为疟疾的高脆弱群体，但他们不太可能使用疟疾预防干预措施。以前探索疟疾病因感知的研究主要集中在孕妇或五岁以下儿童的父母身上。探索父母对疟疾病因的看法以及他们在预防疟疾和与学龄儿童相关的挑战方面的经验，对于为学龄儿童制定疟疾预防教育包以减少学龄儿童中的疟疾和疟疾相关发病率非常重要。
在库察区进行了一项描述性定性研究，通过招募 19 名学龄儿童的家长进行半结构化访谈，6 名关键信息提供者和 6 个焦点小组讨论，其中包括家长、卫生发展军和卫生推广人员。使用半结构化访谈指南指导访谈过程。收集的数据通过主题分析进行分析，重点关注三个主要关注领域：感知的疟疾病因、预防疟疾的经验和预防疟疾使用蚊帐的挑战。
确定了五种疟疾病因，即饥饿、蚊子叮咬、暴露在炎热的阳光下、卫生条件差和不良卫生习惯以及食用一些甜食和未成熟的玉米。参与者认为，食用甜食和未成熟的玉米会导致脾脏肿大，最终导致疟疾，而卫生条件差和不良卫生习惯会导致蚊子的卵发育和家蝇降落，污染食物供食用。预防疟疾的经验在很大程度上受到他们对疟疾病因的感知的影响。家长采取的预防疟疾措施主要是控制病媒、自制草药疗法和限制儿童食用甜食。使用蚊帐预防疟疾的挑战与负面态度、儿童的睡眠行为、蚊帐的非预期用途、蚊帐短缺以及蚊帐分发延迟有关。
存在关于疟疾病因和相关预防经验的误解。控制库察区和其他类似环境中学龄儿童的疟疾需要针对挑战开展健康教育，并纠正家长的误解。
