Health Care Seeking Behavior for Malaria among Laboratory Confirmed Outpatients in a Rural Community, Southern Nigeria

Background: For effective malaria control at the community level, information on the treatment practices are essential. However, there is no information on malaria treatment practices in Ibusa community. Thus, this study seeks to assess the prevalence of malaria and health care seeking behaviors in Ibusa community.
Study Design: A descriptive cross-sectional study.
Place and Duration of Study: Ibusa, Oshimili North Local Government area in Nigeria. The study was untaken between June and November, 2006.
Methods: Malaria treatment practices including sources of anti-malarial of the 600 individuals who visited the Fenlab Diagnostic and Research Laboratory Ibusa, Delta State were obtained using a previously validated structured questionnaire. Microscopy was used to establish malaria infection and species identification.
Results: The prevalence rate was found to be 73.3% and all were infections of Plasmodium falciparium. The age prevalence showed an undulating pattern however, the prevalence was highest among subjects within age group 20-29 years (31.81%) and least in age group 40-49 years (8.64%). Chi-square analysis showed no significant difference (X2 =13.61, df=5, P=0.183). The prevalence by sex showed higher values in females (60.22%) than males (39.78%), but the difference was not statistically significant at (X2=0.027, df=1, P=0.870). The malaria management practices showed that 20.83% participants buy anti-malarials from shops, 17.33% visit hospitals, while 16.33% employ traditional medicine from local healers. However, some of the subjects employ a combination of approaches. 13.83% get anti-malarials from shops, hospitals and local healers, 10.50% get anti-malarials from shops and hospitals, 9.67% visit local healers and hospitals, while 0.33% do not employ any treatment practices.
Conclusion: Given the high prevalence of malaria infection in Ibusa community, proper education of the people on the need to employ proper malaria treatment practice is essential.