Description
Introduction
Even though malaria is easily preventable and treatable, it continues to have a devastating impact on people’s health and livelihoods around the world. Sub-Saharan Africa carries a disproportionately high share of the global malaria burden. This study assessed the prevalence, trends and factors associated with malaria in the Shai-Osudoku District Hospital, Ghana.
Methodology
A cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the prevalence, trend, and factors associated with malaria in the Shai-Osudoku District Hospital; a 10-month secondary data from 3896 individuals was extracted from February to November 2020. The extracted data was entered into Epi Data version 6 and analyzed using STATA version 16. Descriptive analysis was performed to determine the prevalence, trend and socio-demographic characteristics of study participants. Simple logistic regression at a 95% confidence level was performed to investigate socio-demographic factors associated with malaria infection. Tables and charts with summary statistics were used to present the results.
Results and Discussion
The age of the participants ranged from 0.8 to 101 years with a mean age of 32.5. The estimated prevalence of malaria during the study period was 20.9%. A majority (79.1%) of the participants who presented signs and symptoms of malaria were negative after testing. The prevalence of malaria cases increased progressively from 6.7 to 55.4% across the ten months. The simple logistic regression at a 95% confidence level revealed that age group, sex, residential status, religion, occupation and marital status were statistically significantly associated with malaria. The results showed that persons who tested positive for malaria were mostly treated with artemether-lumefantrine (46.1%), some malaria positive cases were given artesunate injection (11.6%), dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (16.2%) and oral artemether-lumefantrine (6.5%). Surprisingly 19.6% of the malaria-positive cases were not given any form of malaria medication.
Conclusion
Factors found to influence malaria infection in the Shai-Osudoku District Hospital include participant’s age, sex, residential status, religious affiliation occupation and marital status. The information obtained from this study can guide the implementation of malaria prevention, control and elimination strategies in the district and Ghana in general.
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