Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42458435›Full record

ArticleMalaria journal2026

Modelling geographical variation in the determinants of childhood malaria in Malawi using geographically weighted regression.

Mary Magoya, Samuel Manda, Bedilu Ejigu

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Article in Malaria journal, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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1 · What the graph read from it

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3 · Its place in the literature

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Mary MagoyaDepartment of Statistics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa. magoya.mary@tuks.co.za.
Samuel MandaDepartment of Statistics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.
Bedilu EjiguDepartment of Statistics, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Funding

SSACAB II Del-22-009
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Malaria remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among children in Malawi with transmission exhibiting marked geographic disparities. While standard regression models estimate the association between childhood malaria and risk factors across the entire study area, they assume spatial stationarity, thereby masking local-area variations in estimated effects. We applied Geographically Weighted Regression, a spatial non-stationarity modeling approach to data from the recent 2024 Malawi Demographic and Health Survey to estimate district-specific associations between childhood malaria and selected risk factors, namely mosquito net use, place of residence, household wealth, maternal age, and maternal education. The overall malaria prevalence among children aged five or under was 36.3%. By applying Geographically Weighted Regression, the study demonstrated substantial spatial heterogeneity in the associations between childhood malaria and the selected predictors across Malawi, revealing locally varying effects that would have been obscured under conventional global modelling approaches. These findings highlight the value of locally estimated relationships for understanding contextual differences in the predictors of childhood malaria and provide district-specific evidence to support geographically targeted intervention strategies and more efficient allocation of prevention and treatment resources within Malawi's National Malaria Control Programme.

Indexed as

MalariaChild, PreschoolFemaleHumansInfantMalawiMalePrevalenceRisk FactorsSpatial RegressionGeographically weighted regression (GWR)MalariaMalawiNon-stationarySpatial heterogeneity

Identifiers

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.