Effects of formal education on malaria knowledge among people attending Federal Medical Centre, Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria

Globally, malaria continues to be a life-threatening infectious disease in more than 100 countries. It is endemic in Africa, especially Nigeria where it is a major cause of morbidity and mortality. It affects all age brackets but more severe among children under the age of 5 and pregnant women. This study was undertaken to evaluate the knowledge of people attending health care at Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Owerri in Imo State, Nigeria on malaria with emphasis on causes, signs and symptoms, preventions, and management of the disease. The study was conducted in Federal Medical Centre, Owerri Imo state, Southeast Nigeria. This cross-sectional hospital based study was conducted on 250 participants. A well-structured questionnaire was administered to elicit information on socio-demographic characteristics and respondents’ knowledge on cause, signs and symptoms, prevention and management of malaria. The socio-demographic variables for the respondents showed that 26.0% had no formal education, whereas 74.0% had formal education. On the knowledge of causes of malaria, 67.4% of the educated study populace had sound knowledge against their counterpart that had 31.9%. Regarding knowledge of malaria signs and symptoms, the respondent without and with formal education had 40.34% and 79.7% respectively. The respondents without formal education had 38.0% against their counterpart that had 61.3% knowledge on malaria prevention. With respect to knowledge on management of malaria, those that had formal education reported 88.9% knowledge, while the participants without formal education recorded 38.8%. Generally, respondents with formal education had significantly better knowledge than those without formal education.