The House Hold Income Status And Malaria Control Measures And Practices In Bagamoyo District

ABSTRACT

The study examined the relationship between household income and malaria control measures and practices in Bagamoyo District. It specifically aimed at: examining the extent to which households use their income in preventive measures and practices; determining the extent to which malaria is an income problem. The study used a cross-sectional research design, and data were collected using structured questionnaires and standardised interview guides as well as personal observation. Data analysis employed SPSS for simple descriptive statistics; frequencies and percentages. The study was undertaken in Bagamoyo District, the entire sample size of the population was 120 respondents who were heads of households and were randomly selected. The findings have shown that poor income status at the household level leads to low interventions in malaria control measures and practices. Major negative effects of malaria which were obtained from the study included reduced households income, reduced households production, reduced farm performance and poor school performance. It was clearly shown that malaria affected more the low income generating households than high income generating households. Not only that but also the level of education was seen to be too low in low income generating households compared to high income generating households. This brought a very big difference regarding the capability of fighting the diseases. After all these assessments it was clearly found that high households’ income contributes very much in malaria control measures and practices. Raising the households’ income status will contribute to the well being and development of the households and communities at large in solving their problems.