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Knowledge, perception and practices about malaria, climate change, livelihoods and food security among rural communities of central Tanzania

BACKGROUND: Understanding the interactions between malaria and agriculture in Tanzania is of particular significance when considering that they are the major sources of illness and livelihoods. The objective of this study was to determine knowledge, perceptions and practices as regards to malaria, c...

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Autores principales: Mayala, Benjamin K, Fahey, Carolyn A, Wei, Dorothy, Zinga, Maria M, Bwana, Veneranda M, Mlacha, Tabitha, Rumisha, Susan F, Stanley, Grades, Shayo, Elizabeth H, Mboera, Leonard EG
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4408568/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25914808
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40249-015-0052-2
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author Mayala, Benjamin K
Fahey, Carolyn A
Wei, Dorothy
Zinga, Maria M
Bwana, Veneranda M
Mlacha, Tabitha
Rumisha, Susan F
Stanley, Grades
Shayo, Elizabeth H
Mboera, Leonard EG
author_facet Mayala, Benjamin K
Fahey, Carolyn A
Wei, Dorothy
Zinga, Maria M
Bwana, Veneranda M
Mlacha, Tabitha
Rumisha, Susan F
Stanley, Grades
Shayo, Elizabeth H
Mboera, Leonard EG
author_sort Mayala, Benjamin K
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Understanding the interactions between malaria and agriculture in Tanzania is of particular significance when considering that they are the major sources of illness and livelihoods. The objective of this study was to determine knowledge, perceptions and practices as regards to malaria, climate change, livelihoods and food insecurity in a rural farming community in central Tanzania. METHODS: Using a cross-sectional design, heads of households were interviewed on their knowledge and perceptions on malaria transmission, symptoms and prevention and knowledge and practices as regards to climate change and food security. RESULTS: A total of 399 individuals (mean age = 39.8 ± 15.5 years) were interviewed. Most (62.41%) of them had attained primary school education and majority (91.23%) were involved in crop farming activities. Nearly all (94.7%) knew that malaria is acquired through a mosquito bite. Three quarters (73%) reported that most people get sick from malaria during the rainy season. About 50% of the respondents felt that malaria had decreased during the last 10 years. The household coverage of insecticide treated mosquito nets (ITN) was high (95.5%). Ninety-six percent reported to have slept under a mosquito net the previous night. Only one in four understood the official Kiswahili term (Mabadiliko ya Tabia Nchi) for climate change. However, there was a general understanding that the rain patterns have changed in the past 10 years. Sixty-two percent believed that the temperature has increased during the same period. Three quarters of the respondents reported that they had no sufficient production from their own farms to guarantee food security in their household for the year. Three quarters (73.0%) reported to having food shortages in the past five years. About half said they most often experienced severe food shortage during the rainy season. CONCLUSION: Farming communities in Kilosa District have little knowledge on climate change and its impact on malaria burden. Food insecurity is common and community-based strategies to mitigate this need to be established. The findings call for an integrated control of malaria and food insecurity interventions. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40249-015-0052-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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spelling pubmed-44085682015-04-25 Knowledge, perception and practices about malaria, climate change, livelihoods and food security among rural communities of central Tanzania Mayala, Benjamin K Fahey, Carolyn A Wei, Dorothy Zinga, Maria M Bwana, Veneranda M Mlacha, Tabitha Rumisha, Susan F Stanley, Grades Shayo, Elizabeth H Mboera, Leonard EG Infect Dis Poverty Research Article BACKGROUND: Understanding the interactions between malaria and agriculture in Tanzania is of particular significance when considering that they are the major sources of illness and livelihoods. The objective of this study was to determine knowledge, perceptions and practices as regards to malaria, climate change, livelihoods and food insecurity in a rural farming community in central Tanzania. METHODS: Using a cross-sectional design, heads of households were interviewed on their knowledge and perceptions on malaria transmission, symptoms and prevention and knowledge and practices as regards to climate change and food security. RESULTS: A total of 399 individuals (mean age = 39.8 ± 15.5 years) were interviewed. Most (62.41%) of them had attained primary school education and majority (91.23%) were involved in crop farming activities. Nearly all (94.7%) knew that malaria is acquired through a mosquito bite. Three quarters (73%) reported that most people get sick from malaria during the rainy season. About 50% of the respondents felt that malaria had decreased during the last 10 years. The household coverage of insecticide treated mosquito nets (ITN) was high (95.5%). Ninety-six percent reported to have slept under a mosquito net the previous night. Only one in four understood the official Kiswahili term (Mabadiliko ya Tabia Nchi) for climate change. However, there was a general understanding that the rain patterns have changed in the past 10 years. Sixty-two percent believed that the temperature has increased during the same period. Three quarters of the respondents reported that they had no sufficient production from their own farms to guarantee food security in their household for the year. Three quarters (73.0%) reported to having food shortages in the past five years. About half said they most often experienced severe food shortage during the rainy season. CONCLUSION: Farming communities in Kilosa District have little knowledge on climate change and its impact on malaria burden. Food insecurity is common and community-based strategies to mitigate this need to be established. The findings call for an integrated control of malaria and food insecurity interventions. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40249-015-0052-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. BioMed Central 2015-04-24 /pmc/articles/PMC4408568/ /pubmed/25914808 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40249-015-0052-2 Text en © Mayala et al.; licensee BioMed Central. 2015 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Mayala, Benjamin K
Fahey, Carolyn A
Wei, Dorothy
Zinga, Maria M
Bwana, Veneranda M
Mlacha, Tabitha
Rumisha, Susan F
Stanley, Grades
Shayo, Elizabeth H
Mboera, Leonard EG
Knowledge, perception and practices about malaria, climate change, livelihoods and food security among rural communities of central Tanzania
title Knowledge, perception and practices about malaria, climate change, livelihoods and food security among rural communities of central Tanzania
title_full Knowledge, perception and practices about malaria, climate change, livelihoods and food security among rural communities of central Tanzania
title_fullStr Knowledge, perception and practices about malaria, climate change, livelihoods and food security among rural communities of central Tanzania
title_full_unstemmed Knowledge, perception and practices about malaria, climate change, livelihoods and food security among rural communities of central Tanzania
title_short Knowledge, perception and practices about malaria, climate change, livelihoods and food security among rural communities of central Tanzania
title_sort knowledge, perception and practices about malaria, climate change, livelihoods and food security among rural communities of central tanzania
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4408568/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25914808
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40249-015-0052-2
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