Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 May 13;6(5):e03946.
doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e03946. eCollection 2020 May.

Prevalence of and factors associated with malaria in children under five years of age in Malawi, using malaria indicator survey data

Rugiranka Tony Gaston  1 , Shaun Ramroop  1
Affiliations

Prevalence of and factors associated with malaria in children under five years of age in Malawi, using malaria indicator survey data

Rugiranka Tony Gaston et al. Heliyon. .

Abstract

Background: Malaria remains a public health problem in developing countries and Malawi is no different. Although there has been an improvement in reducing malaria in Malawi, it remains a problem, especially in children less than five years old. The primary objective of the study was to assess whether socio-economic, geographic and demographic factors are associated with malaria, using the generalized additive mixed model (GAMM).

Data and methodology: The study used a 2017 dataset from the Malawi Malaria Indicator Survey (MMI) with a total number of 2724 children under five years old. The study also utilized the GAMM to analyze data. The outcome was that either the child had malaria or did not, as detected using the malaria Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) (Ayele et al., 2014a).

Results: In this study, more than 37 % of the total number of children who were tested showed a positive malaria result. In addition, the results from this study using GAMM indicated that anaemia, mother's education level, wealth index, child's age, the altitude of the place of residence, region, place of residence, toilet facility and electricity were significantly associated with a positive malaria RDT.

Conclusion: The study revealed that socio-economic, geographical and demographic variables are the key factors in improving malaria vectors in children. Improving income levels and supporting the poorer rural community mostly from the Central Region would be a great achievement in reducing malaria vectors in Malawi. In addition, improving health care in rural areas, especially at higher altitudes, would contribute to controlling malaria and reducing anaemia.

Keywords: Children under five years of age; GAMM; Infectious disease; MMIS; Malaria; Nutrition; Public heath; RDT.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Smoothing components of malaria RDT test with age and altitude.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Adebayo S.B., Gayawan E., Heumann C., Seiler C. Joint modelling of anaemia and malaria in children under five in Nigeria. Spatial Spatio Tempo Epidemiol. 2016;17:105–115. - PubMed
    1. Alegana V.A., Wright J.A., Nahzat S.M., Butt W., Sediqi A.W., Habib N., Snow R.W., Atkinson P.M., Noor A.M. Modelling the incidence of Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium falciparum malaria in Afghanistan 2006–2009. PloS One. 2014;9(7) - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ayele D.G., Zewotir T.T., Mwambi H.G. The risk factor indicators of malaria in Ethiopia. Int. J. Med. Med. Sci. 2013;5(7):335–347.
    1. Ayele D.G., Zewotir T.T., Mwambi H.G. Semiparametric models for malaria rapid diagnosis test result. BMC Publ. Health. 2014;14(1):31. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ayele D.G., Zewotir T.T., Mwambi H.G. Modelling the joint determinants of a positive malaria Rapid Diagnosis Test result, use of mosquito nets and indoor residual spraying with insecticide. Occup. Health South Afr. 2014;20(4):20–27.

LinkOut - more resources