Background: Malaria is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality in Kenya. The diseases
displays varying degrees of endemicity in different regions in the country, however the knowledge, attitudes and
practices of communities about the disease prevention and control measures are in many cases not in tandem.
Objective: To assess the level of knowledge, attitudes and practices of the communities towards malaria
prevention and control options.
Methodology: A cross sectional study design was done in six boarding schools in Meru South District in
Tharaka Nithi County in Kenya. A single population proportion sample size formula and design effect of two
was used to determine sample size. A total of 347 students were included in the study and proportional
allocation was done among schools in the highland and lowland areas. The data was collected by trained data
collectors and supervisors using questionnaires and interviewing guidelines. The collected data was cleaned,
coded and entered into SPSS version 20.0 for windows software for analysis.
Results: This study revealed that 7.8% of the respondents mentioned poverty as a strongly predisposing factor
to malaria. Only 8.9% of the respondents reported that children were more vulnerable to malaria as opposed to
6.9% who give the opinion that adults were more vulnerable compared to children. On drainage, only 5.5% of
the respondents reported that stagnant water near dwelling places is a strong predisposing factor to malaria.
On the type housing, 4.6% of the respondents reported that poor housing exposed people to mosquito bites
hence malaria. 18.2% of those interviewed were of the view that seasons with more fruits had more incidences
of malaria and that this was more common during the wet and warm weather (23.6%) as compared to the cold
and dry season (20.6%). Other predisposing factors that the respondents identified include pregnancy (25.3%),
living with malaria infected people (43.8%) and self and presumptive medication (20.5%).
Conclusion and recommendation: Knowledge, attitude and practice of the communities living in the area
studied towards malaria prevention and control options was low. This calls for continual strengthening and
improvement of the community knowledge, attitudes and practices towards malaria prevention and control.