Date of Conferral

2022

Degree

Doctor of Public Health (DrPH)

School

Public Health

Advisor

Manoj Sharma

Abstract

Malaria is a deadly vector-borne disease that mainly affects children in Africa, especially in Niger. Although public health efforts in malaria prevention have been successful in many parts of the world, malaria remains a significant public burden in sub-Saharan Africa, especially among children. Despite the numerous studies conducted on individual factors influencing the prevalence of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa and Niger, there is little knowledge about the collective influence of treatment-seeking behaviors and malaria prevalence among under-5 children in Niger. This study was a quantitative study with a cross-sectional design guided by the social-ecological model (SEM) that used secondary data from the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), which surveyed 10,750 individuals to understand how types of antimalarials, source of antimalarials, and bed net usage collectively influenced malaria prevalence among under-5 children in Niger. The analyses revealed that there was no association between types of antimalarials and malaria prevalence (p =.252 and p =.300]). However, the analyses showed a significant association between the source of antimalarials and malaria prevalence (p <0.001), and between bed net usage and malaria prevalence (p <0.001). The significance of this study for social change is that it may provide a better understanding of the social support needed by children in Niger to institute health behavior changes that will help decrease malaria prevalence. In addition, findings from this study may foster positive social change through the development of culturally appropriate and age-specific multifaceted interventions to meet the specific needs of children in Niger using the SEM.

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