Knowledge, attitude and practices of malaria preventive measures among mothers with children under five years in a rural setting of Ghana.

backgroundMalaria remains a major public health concern around the world, particularly in resource-constrained countries. Malaria still accounts for 40% of all Out-Patient Department (OPD) cases in Ghana, with children under the age of five being the most vulnerable group. The study assessed the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of malaria preventive measures among mothers with children under 5 years old in a rural setting in Ghana.

methodsA cross-sectional study design with a quantitative approach was used in this study. The study was facility based and involved the use of interviewer administered questionnaires to collect data from 281 mothers with children under the age of five. Simple random sampling method was used to select the respondents. The data collected was analysed using the statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) version 22 and results presented in tables.

resultsThere were 281 mothers, with 59.4% having children at the age of a year. The findings revealed that the majority of participants have a high level of knowledge about malaria's causes, signs, and symptoms. Again, the majority of participants demonstrated a positive attitude toward malaria prevention, such as seeking treatment at a hospital within 24 h of suspecting their children had malaria and demonstrating good knowledge of malaria prevention practices. Despite this, 35.5% of respondents were not actively engaged in malaria prevention practices in a day prior to the interview. Respondents' occupation, level of education, and religion had a statistically significant association with mothers' attitude towards prevention (p-values < 0.05 and 0.01).

conclusionThe study's findings clearly demonstrate that the majority of mothers were knowledgeable about the causes, signs and symptoms, and preventive measures of malaria in children under the age of five. There was also statistically significant association between mothers' demographic information, including level of education, occupation, religion, and their attitude towards malaria prevention. A keen interest should be directed toward the consistent application of low-cost preventive measures.