Malaria care-seeking and treatment ideation among gold miners in Guyana

• Published in: Malaria Journal
• Main Authors: Bolanle Olapeju, Camille Adams, Sean Wilson, Joann Simpson, Gabrielle C. Hunter, TrishAnn Davis, Lyndsey Mitchum, Horace Cox, Kashana James, Jennifer Orkis, J. Douglas Storey
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2022
• Subjects: Malaria; Guyana; Care-seeking; Treatment; Ideation; Behaviour; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Infectious and parasitic diseases; RC109-216; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-022-04045-5; https://doaj.org/article/6fb1b5992d3142b3b1b5c087ef0974ea

Abstract Background Although miners are a priority population in malaria elimination in Guyana, scant literature exists on the drivers of malaria-related behaviour. This study explores the relationship between gold miners’ malaria-related ideation and the adoption of malaria care-seeking and treatment behaviours including prompt care-seeking, malaria testing, and self-medication. Methods Data are from a cross-sectional quantitative survey of 1685 adult miners between the ages of 18–59 years who live in mining camps in Regions 1, 7, and 8. The analysis focused on miners who reported an episode of fever in the past year (n = 745). Malaria care-seeking and treatment ideation was defined as a composite additive score consisting of the following variables: general malaria knowledge, perceived severity, perceived susceptibility, beliefs, perceived self-efficacy, perceived norms, interpersonal communication, and perceived response efficacy. Multivariable logistic regressions explored the relationship between ideation on care-seeking/treatment behaviours, controlling for confounding variables. Results Most miners with a recent episode of fever had perceived risk (92%), self-efficacy (67%), susceptibility (53%) and high malaria knowledge (53%). Overall, miners' care-seeking/treatment ideation score ranged from 0 to 8 with a mean of 4.1. Ideation scores were associated with higher odds of care-seeking for fever (aOR: 1.19; 95% CI 1.04–1.36), getting tested for malaria (aOR: 1.22; 95% CI 1.07–1.38) and lower odds of self-medication (aOR: 0.87; 95% CI 0.77–0.99). Conclusions A national community case management initiative is using study findings as part of its scale-up, using volunteers to make testing and treatment services more accessible to miners. This is complemented by a multi-channel mass media campaign to improve miners’ ideation. Communication messages focus on increasing miners’ knowledge of malaria transmission and symptoms, encourage positive beliefs about malaria testing and volunteer testers, promote evidence ...