Mothers knowledge on the cause, prevention and symptoms of malaria in a university staff clinic in an urban setting in Southwestern Nigeria.

This prospective study was carried out at Jaja Clinic, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. The study documented the knowledge of mothers of children about the cause, prevention and symptoms of malaria. These were mothers of children between ages 1 month to 12 years that presented with fever at the clinic for the first time during the current illness. Data was collected with structured questionnaires administered to the mothers of the enrolled children. The children were clinically examined by clinicians and blood films for malaria parasites were taken and examined in the laboratory using Giemsa stain. The haematocrit level of each child was also determined. 60.4% of the children were 1 month-5 years (mean age 33.0 +/- 15.2 months) while 39.6% of them were over 5-12 years (mean 8.1 +/- 2.1 years). Most of the mothers (58.3%) had above secondary school education. Blood films for malaria parasites were positive in 76% of the children that presented with fever. 74.2% of the mothers knew mosquito bite as the cause of malaria while 13.2% of them were ignorant of the cause of malaria. The main protective measures practiced by the mothers against mosquito bites were netted windows (86.2%), use of aerosol insecticides (76.1%), and mosquito coil (17.0%). Most mothers were not knowledgeable about the use of insecticide treated nets (ITN) which is the most recently introduced protective measure against mosquito bite. Ninety percent of the mothers knew fever as the major symptom of malaria. The degree of parasitaemia affected the PCV level. The greater the parasite count, the lower the PCV level.