ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ENVIRONMENTAL SANITATION IN THE CONTROL OF MALARIA

 
ABSTRACT 
This study was conducted to determine the effectiveness environmental sanitation practices on malaria prevention and control in Abeokuta metropolis, Ogun State, Nigeria.  A descriptive cross-sectional study design was adopted for the study; A pre-tested structured questionnaire was used to generate data from 450 adult respondents who were selected using multi-stage sampling technique. An observational checklist was used to assess the sanitary condition of residential dwellings and facilities. Data generated was entered into excel spread sheet and exported to Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 20.0) software for analysis. Results were presented in frequencies, tables and charts. Chi-square was used to test for association between variables at 0.05 α level. It was revealed that 283 (62.9%) respondents exhibited poor environmental sanitation practices while 167 (37.1%) had good environmental sanitation practices. It also was observed that age (p=0.023), gender (p=0.000), educational status (p=0.000) and income (p=0.000) were found to be statistically significantly associated with environmental sanitation practices. Hence, malaria intervention programmes should be redesigned or remodeled to include the core components of environmental sanitation to prevent mosquito breeding and mitigate malaria transmission in rural areas.