Knowledge Attitude and Practices of Mitanin's (Community Health Workers) in Chhattisgarh: Malaria Elimination Perspective

BACKGROUND: For the success of any program, its implementation plays a crucial role. Community health workers are of immense importance for malaria elimination from India. OBJECTIVE: This study was aimed to assess the knowledge gaps and the responsible factors for mitanins' knowledge on various aspects of and problems faced by mitanins during their work. METHODS: Structured interviewer-based questionnaire was used to collect the data, and ordinal regression was applied to analyze the data. RESULTS: Only 26% of the mitanins were having a good knowledge attitude and practices (KAP) score about malaria. Malaria endemicity of area [odds ratio (OR) = 0.26, 95% CI = 0.13–0.50), P < 0.001] and education (OR = 0.35, 95% CI = 0.18–0.69, P = 0.002) were the two significant factors affecting the KAP of mitanins. CONCLUSION: This study shows that prioritizing education while recruiting the mitanins and training them in the low endemic areas with a focus on malaria, which will help achieve the malaria elimination goal.