Influence of Media Messages on Knowledge of Malaria in Children Among Mothers in Lafia Local Government Area, Nasarawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

An assessment of the influence of media messages to identify knowledge of causes, symptoms and preventive measures for malaria in children under-five was carried out among mothers in Lafia Local Government Area, Nasarawa State, north-central Nigeria. A cross sectional sample survey design was adopted. A multi-stage systematic random sampling technique was adopted and a pretested structured questionnaire was administered to 385 mothers. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the data. Analysis of the knowledge of causes, symptoms and prevention of malaria was scored by creating dummy variables in which those who responded in the preferred direction were coded as 1 and 0 otherwise while each of the items had three categorical variables scored, 1, 2 and 3; measured cumulatively using item analysis. The study findings showed that all participants in this study have heard of malaria and exposed through radio messages. More than half (73.2%) said the media exposed them to malaria information regularly. The study participants perceived malaria to be caused by various factors. Most (94.8%) of the respondents believed that the disease is caused by the bite of mosquitoes. A total of 94%o of the respondents identified the clinical symptoms of malaria and believed that malaria could be prevented (85.4%) using bed-nets as a strategy for preventing mosquitoes for their under-5 (83.1%). Majority of the respondents reported that in several ways, their Knowledge on Signs and Symptoms (80.7%), prevention (85.1%), as well as treatment practices (77.4%) and timely treatment (74.3%) of the disease has improved tremendously, as a result of the radio messages. Among other recommendations, the media should disseminate information on malaria in children to mothers in the study area that will enable them to correctly recognize and link symptoms to the disease for effective treatment and avoid misconceptions.