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Are Malaria Risk Factors Based on Gender? A Mixed-Methods Survey in an Urban Setting in Ghana

Malaria still represents one of the most debilitating and deadly diseases in the world. It has been suggested that malaria has different impacts on women and men due to both social and biological factors. A gender perspective is therefore important to understand how to eliminate malaria. This study...

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Autores principales: Quaresima, Virginia, Agbenyega, Tsiri, Oppong, Bismark, Awunyo, Julia Ann D. A., Adu Adomah, Priscilla, Enty, Eunice, Donato, Francesco, Castelli, Francesco
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8482108/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34564545
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/tropicalmed6030161
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author Quaresima, Virginia
Agbenyega, Tsiri
Oppong, Bismark
Awunyo, Julia Ann D. A.
Adu Adomah, Priscilla
Enty, Eunice
Donato, Francesco
Castelli, Francesco
author_facet Quaresima, Virginia
Agbenyega, Tsiri
Oppong, Bismark
Awunyo, Julia Ann D. A.
Adu Adomah, Priscilla
Enty, Eunice
Donato, Francesco
Castelli, Francesco
author_sort Quaresima, Virginia
collection PubMed
description Malaria still represents one of the most debilitating and deadly diseases in the world. It has been suggested that malaria has different impacts on women and men due to both social and biological factors. A gender perspective is therefore important to understand how to eliminate malaria. This study aimed to investigate malaria from a gender perspective in a non-for-profit private health facility, HopeXchange Medical Centre, based in Kumasi (Ghana). A sequential mixed-methods design, comprising quantitative and qualitative methods, was used. This study found low ownership (40%) and use (19%) of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs). Most malaria cases were women (62%), who were less educated and had more external risk factors associated with infection. Our study reported a trend of preferring malaria self-medication at home, which was practiced mostly by men (43%). Our data suggest that women are more likely to be exposed to malaria infections than men, especially due to their prolonged exposure to mosquito bites during the most dangerous hours. Our study highlighted the need for future malaria control policies to be more focused on social and behavioral aspects and from a gender perspective.
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spelling pubmed-84821082021-10-01 Are Malaria Risk Factors Based on Gender? A Mixed-Methods Survey in an Urban Setting in Ghana Quaresima, Virginia Agbenyega, Tsiri Oppong, Bismark Awunyo, Julia Ann D. A. Adu Adomah, Priscilla Enty, Eunice Donato, Francesco Castelli, Francesco Trop Med Infect Dis Article Malaria still represents one of the most debilitating and deadly diseases in the world. It has been suggested that malaria has different impacts on women and men due to both social and biological factors. A gender perspective is therefore important to understand how to eliminate malaria. This study aimed to investigate malaria from a gender perspective in a non-for-profit private health facility, HopeXchange Medical Centre, based in Kumasi (Ghana). A sequential mixed-methods design, comprising quantitative and qualitative methods, was used. This study found low ownership (40%) and use (19%) of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs). Most malaria cases were women (62%), who were less educated and had more external risk factors associated with infection. Our study reported a trend of preferring malaria self-medication at home, which was practiced mostly by men (43%). Our data suggest that women are more likely to be exposed to malaria infections than men, especially due to their prolonged exposure to mosquito bites during the most dangerous hours. Our study highlighted the need for future malaria control policies to be more focused on social and behavioral aspects and from a gender perspective. MDPI 2021-09-02 /pmc/articles/PMC8482108/ /pubmed/34564545 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/tropicalmed6030161 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Quaresima, Virginia
Agbenyega, Tsiri
Oppong, Bismark
Awunyo, Julia Ann D. A.
Adu Adomah, Priscilla
Enty, Eunice
Donato, Francesco
Castelli, Francesco
Are Malaria Risk Factors Based on Gender? A Mixed-Methods Survey in an Urban Setting in Ghana
title Are Malaria Risk Factors Based on Gender? A Mixed-Methods Survey in an Urban Setting in Ghana
title_full Are Malaria Risk Factors Based on Gender? A Mixed-Methods Survey in an Urban Setting in Ghana
title_fullStr Are Malaria Risk Factors Based on Gender? A Mixed-Methods Survey in an Urban Setting in Ghana
title_full_unstemmed Are Malaria Risk Factors Based on Gender? A Mixed-Methods Survey in an Urban Setting in Ghana
title_short Are Malaria Risk Factors Based on Gender? A Mixed-Methods Survey in an Urban Setting in Ghana
title_sort are malaria risk factors based on gender? a mixed-methods survey in an urban setting in ghana
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8482108/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34564545
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/tropicalmed6030161
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