Awareness, attitude and perception of preventive measures towards malaria among students in Government Girls’ College, Kano

Malaria is one of the world's most deadly diseases which are highly preventable. In Africa, malaria contributes 5% to 8% of all-cause absenteeism, equivalent to 50% of all preventable absenteeism, and around 4 to 10 million school days lost per year. As much as 60% of school children’s learning may be impaired due to malarial infection. A cross-sectional design was adopted, with 119 respondents selected using stratified sampling technique, self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data, which composed of socio-demographic characteristics, awareness, attitude and perception of the respondents towards preventive measures of malaria. Data was analyzed using SPSS Version 23. Results: The findings showed that majority (89.6%) of the respondents are aware of preventive measures of malaria, majority of the respondents have positive attitude towards preventive measures of malaria with the overall mean of (2.31) as well as positive perception towards preventive measures of malaria with an overall mean of (3.78). The study therefore concluded that, majority of the respondents are aware of preventive measures towards malaria but indicated a negative attitude with the correct use of mosquito nets. It is recommended that interventions should not be limited to nets distribution alone but more emphasis should be geared towards educating the students on correct use of the nets by their teachers and non-governmental organizations. The nets could also be design to be bigger in terms of width and length to prevent scenario of mosquitoes having access while users are asleep.