RESEARCH ARTICLE
The Study on the Awareness, Knowledge and Perception of Malaria among Selected Secondary School Students in Akure Metropolis, Nigeria
Omoya F. Oluyemi*, Ajayi K. Oluyemi
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2017Volume: 10
First Page: 1
Last Page: 6
Publisher ID: TOPHJ-10-1
DOI: 10.2174/1874944501710010001
Article History:
Received Date: 04/01/2017Revision Received Date: 15/02/2017
Acceptance Date: 16/02/2017
Electronic publication date: 31/03/2017
Collection year: 2017
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Background:
The negligence of health education and promotion has contributed to increase in morbidity and mortality of malaria among children.
Method:
This study was carried out in selected secondary schools in Akure, South-western Nigeria to assess the level of awareness, knowledge and perceptive of the use of treated mosquito nets among children of age group 9 and 17 years. 200 pieces of questionnaires were distributed randomly to the respondents.
Results and Discussion:
Demographic information of respondents, awareness, knowledge and perception on malaria was obtained. 96% of the respondents know that mosquito transmits malaria parasite. The respondents’ knowledge on the symptoms of malaria as persistence headache was 94% while 6% wrongly said itching and bleeding were among the symptoms of malaria. 74% have experienced mosquito bites while 26% haven't experienced it. Sleeping under treated net by the respondents was poor as only 2% of them always sleep under insecticide treated net and 44% never sleep under it. Although, awareness of malaria among the secondary school students is high, there is a high percentage (%) of the respondents who never sleep under insecticide treated net.
Conclusion:
Therefore, health education on awareness of insecticide-treated net should be emphasised for successful elimination of malaria.