Community’s Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices towards Malaria Vector Control Methods in Ruhango district, Rwanda

Abstract

Background: Malaria occurs mostly in poor tropical and subtropical areas of the world and still a leading cause of illness and death. This study aimed to explore the community knowledge, attitudes and practices towards malaria vector control methods in Rwanda. Methods: This research was conducted under community-based cross-sectional study. Study was conducted in Ruhango district, located in South province of Rwanda. A number of 385 participants were selected using a two-stage randomized cluster sampling procedure and subjected to a tested structured questionnaire for data collection. The data were coded and entered using Kobo Collect Toolbox, and transferred to SPSS for statistical analysis. Results: More than a half of respondents were females (57.7%), married (69.4%), had attended school (89.4%) and 89.6% were farmers. The overall knowledge score showed that 41.0% had low knowledge about malaria vector control methods. Overall, 33.8% of the respondents had positive attitudes towards MVCM. The overall practice score indicated 24.7% of respondents had good on MVCM. People with high level of knowledge towards malaria vector control methods were less likely to have good practices on malaria vector control methods than people with medium and low level of knowledge towards MVCM (OR=0.04; 95%CI: [0.005-0.30]; p<0.001) and that people with positive attitudes were 1.97 times more likely having good practices than people with neutral and negative attitudes towards malaria vector control methods (OR=1.97; 95%CI: [1.08-3.59]; p<0.001). Conclusion: Malaria vector control campaigns accompanied with education for behavioural change should be considered to ensure householders’ participation and cooperation in the Integrated Vector Management (IVM) programme. Moreover, continuous evaluation and monitoring of IVM as well as conducting more surveys on KAP are recommended to improve malaria control measures and to identify indicators for effective, successful, and sustainable malaria elimination programme.