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Knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) on malaria, from high malaria burden rural communities, southeastern Iran

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Abstract

Nowadays, community based control strategies are considered efficient in reaching the malaria elimination goal. For this reason, this study was conducted to access the knowledge, attitude and practice of people on malaria from rural areas with high malaria incidence. In this descriptive–analytic study, a total of 200 rural residents of southeastern Iran were recruited. They were selected based on cluster and simple random sampling methods. Data collection was done using questionnaire with reliability confirmation by Cronbach’s alpha and data was analyzed using SPSS. Mosquito’s bite was answered as the main route of malaria transmission. Also, majority of the participants correctly expressed most important symptoms of malaria. Most of them believed that malaria is preventable and the best strategy for its control is indoor residual spraying. Very few number of the respondents mentioned sleeping under insecticide treated bed net as a method for controlling the transmission of malaria. Chi square test shows significant difference between the level of education and usage of mosquito nets, but there was no significant difference between the use of bed nets and time of usage. Another significant relationship was seen between malaria infection, use of mosquito nets and place of sleeping at nights during summer. The current study showed the appropriate level of KAP among rural communities in southeast of Iran. Alongside of people’s knowledge and attitudes, their practice about malaria should be increased as an effective factor for achieving to great goal of malaria elimination.

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Acknowledgements

The conduction of this research could not have been possible without the assistance of our colleagues in the health center of Sarbaz city. We are grateful to Mr. Noormohammad Nabatzehi for providing us with the facilities. We also want to express our appreciation to the Mr. Aghil Birnour, the health worker of Pishin health center, for his kindly assistance in data collection.

Funding was provided by Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences (Grant No. 29512).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Health Promotion Research Center, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran

    Jalil Nejati

  2. Department of Medical Entomology and Vector Control, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Jalil Nejati & Seyed Hassan Moosa-Kazemi

  3. Department of Public Health, School of Health, Qom University of Medical Sciences, Qom, Iran

    Abedin Saghafipour

  4. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Sarbaz Health Center, Iranshahr University of Medical Sciences, Iranshahr, Iran

    Khodamorad Soofi

Authors
  1. Jalil Nejati
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  2. Seyed Hassan Moosa-Kazemi
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  3. Abedin Saghafipour
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  4. Khodamorad Soofi
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Contributions

Conceptualization: JN SHMK. Data curation: JN KS. Formal analysis: JN AS. Funding acquisition: SHMK. Methodology: JN SHMK. Project administration: JN SHMK. Resources: JN. Software: JN. Supervision: SHMK. Validation: AS. Visualization: JN. Writing ± original draft: JN AS SHMK. Writing ± review and editing: AS.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Abedin Saghafipour.

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Nejati, J., Moosa-Kazemi, S.H., Saghafipour, A. et al. Knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) on malaria, from high malaria burden rural communities, southeastern Iran. J Parasit Dis 42, 62–67 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12639-017-0965-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12639-017-0965-8

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