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LIFESTYLE AND PSYCHOSOCIAL RISK FACTORS OF MALARIA


Human behaviour, much of which is influenced by social, cultural, economic, and political factors, is clearly related to health, including the risk for infectious diseases like malaria. There are many reasons why particular behaviours exist and they often are tied to considerable benefits in areas quite distinct from health. The principal reason for which people do not accept new kinds of health behaviour is that the behaviour being advocated is inconvenient, produces unwanted side-effects, or does not give visible results (MacCormack, 1984). Thus, it is not always the case that “these people do not know any better," but rather that their native logic and rationality make sense within the realities and limitations of their local circumstances.


Poverty creates preconditions to malaria, in that the means to acquire protection such as treated bed nets, repellants and insecticides from mosquitoes are hindered. It is well established in the world that morbidity and mortality rates are directly associated with socioeconomic status. The lower the status the higher the rates. In malarious regions, the poor are disproportionately at risk for the disease (Dunn, 1979).
 Health-seeking behaviours of individuals also influence other people's risk of getting malaria. For example, in Orissa State, India, tribal people do not take treatment for malaria or take part in parasite control because they do not consider mosquito bites to be harmful and consider malaria as a mild disease. Research from rural areas in other developing countries show the widespread belief that mosquitoes do not transmit malaria. Untreated people are potential for spreading parasites and so in a locality where there are individuals with the malaria parasite who do not seek medical treatment, mosquitoes carry the plasmodium parasites and transmit from these infected people to uninfected persons through their bites. Thus, physical environment, and people's proximity and exposure to vectors or parasites, including microbiological and parasitological factors, are clearly essential for transmission of infection and constitute necessary and immediate risk factors (Dunn, 1979).
Also, individual perceptions of illness, in this case malaria, determine people's risk of getting malaria. In some traditions, malaria or "fever" ,as popularly known, is a sign of growth and so is not one of a bother.


It may seem strange that in some cultures, people actively change their ecology in a way that will increase risk for disease. They try to modify their environment to gain nutritional or convenience benefit to the detriment of their disease status and then adapt to the new disease risk (MacCormack, 1984). In the case of malaria, where marshy areas support the successful breeding of mosquitoes, the culture of many considers the marshes an important aspect of preserving their ecology and hence any disease associated is of less importance or not even known.
 Low educational standard, impoverished housing, poor hygiene and general environmental conditions of individuals also contribute to their risk of getting malaria. Due to low level of insight, certain communities fail to understand why they should prioritise malaria for elimination when there are other pressing issues of hunger and other diseases whose prevention are far more costlier, for example HIV/AIDS (Heinrich, 1985).


Author: Yvonne Addai

REFERENCES
Dunn, F.L. (1979). Behavioural Aspects of the Control of Parasitic Diseases. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 57: 499-512.
Heinrich, M. (1985). The Anthropology of Malaria Control. Central Issues in Anthropology. Pp. 27-40.
MacCormack, C.P. and Snow, R.W. (1986). Gambian Cultural Preferences in the Use of Insecticide-Impregnated Bed Nets. Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 89:295-302.
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