This paper seeks to determine, for children under the age of five living in selected Sub-Saharan African countries, the elasticity of demand for the malaria-preventive behaviors of sleeping under a mosquito net, an insecticide-treated net and when infected, the use of artemisinin-combination therapy as treatment, with respect to the local malaria prevalence. Using individual behavior and demographic information from recent Demographic and Health
Surveys as well as the Malaria Atlas Project’s spatial distribution of the Plasmodium falciparum Parasite Rate, our logistic analysis indicates the existence of prevalence elasticity, which is to say that as malaria prevalence increases, the demand for these preventive behaviors in this vulnerable subgroup of the population increases more than proportionally. In contrast to the epidemiological theory which ignores the incentivized preventive response that individuals may take when faced with an increased risk, these findings, along with evidence supporting the controlling effect that these preventive behaviors have on the prevailing prevalence of malaria as well as the current status of decline of this disease in many areas, suggest that it may be imperative for the preventive behavior response to be maintained at levels at least as high as the prevailing parasite rate to ensure a resurgence does not occur in the absence of adequate prevention.