"It's effective but should I bother?" A study of personal protection measures against malaria in urban India

OBJECTIVES: Malaria affects millions of people in urban and rural India every year. This study addresses two main gaps in current research: 1) attitudes towards personal protective strategies against Malaria among urban populations; and 2) understanding of the extent to which urban health informatio...

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Main Authors: Lwin, May Oo, Vijaykumar, Santosh, Lim, Gentatsu, Foo, Schubert, Theng, Yin-Leng
Other Authors: Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2014
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/104142
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/20354
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1041422020-03-07T12:15:52Z "It's effective but should I bother?" A study of personal protection measures against malaria in urban India Lwin, May Oo Vijaykumar, Santosh Lim, Gentatsu Foo, Schubert Theng, Yin-Leng Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information Centre of Social Media Innovations for Communities (COSMIC) DRNTU::Social sciences::Mass media OBJECTIVES: Malaria affects millions of people in urban and rural India every year. This study addresses two main gaps in current research: 1) attitudes towards personal protective strategies against Malaria among urban populations; and 2) understanding of the extent to which urban health information seeking preferences shape preventive behaviours. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional face-to-face surveys using stratified sampling design. METHODS: A 60-min survey was carried out to 1000 middle-of-pyramid (MOP) population in five main cities in India by trained interviewers. Variables assessed included perceived effectiveness and actual practice of 14 scientific and indigenous personal protection methods, Malaria-related attitudes (susceptibility, severity and response efficacy) and health information seeking preferences. RESULTS: Actual practice of Malaria preventive behaviours was found to be significantly lower than the perceived effectiveness of each of the fourteen scientific and indigenous methods. Television, newspapers, and mobile phones were reported as the top three preferred media for seeking public health information. Lastly, perceived susceptibility, response efficacy, and health-related media use were found to play significant roles in predicting actual practice behaviours. CONCLUSIONS: Our study highlights a need for health authorities to focus on translating positive attitudes to actual practice of preventive behaviours. Communication efforts may focus on the use of TV, newspapers and mobile phones for greater reach and efficacy. Other implications for Malaria prevention programs are discussed. Accepted version 2014-08-21T01:27:34Z 2019-12-06T21:27:24Z 2014-08-21T01:27:34Z 2019-12-06T21:27:24Z 2014 2014 Journal Article Lwin, M. O., Vijaykumar, S., Lim, G., Theng, Y.-L., & Foo, S. (2014). 'It's effective but should I bother?' A study of personal protection measures against Malaria in urban India. Public Health, 128(7), 654-64. https://hdl.handle.net/10356/104142 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/20354 10.1016/j.puhe.2014.03.008 176480 en Public health © 2014 Elsevier. This is the author created version of a work that has been peer reviewed and accepted for publication by Public Health, Elsevier. It incorporates referee’s comments but changes resulting from the publishing process, such as copyediting, structural formatting, may not be reflected in this document. The published version is available at: [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2014.03.008]. application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
country Singapore
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic DRNTU::Social sciences::Mass media
spellingShingle DRNTU::Social sciences::Mass media
Lwin, May Oo
Vijaykumar, Santosh
Lim, Gentatsu
Foo, Schubert
Theng, Yin-Leng
"It's effective but should I bother?" A study of personal protection measures against malaria in urban India
description OBJECTIVES: Malaria affects millions of people in urban and rural India every year. This study addresses two main gaps in current research: 1) attitudes towards personal protective strategies against Malaria among urban populations; and 2) understanding of the extent to which urban health information seeking preferences shape preventive behaviours. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional face-to-face surveys using stratified sampling design. METHODS: A 60-min survey was carried out to 1000 middle-of-pyramid (MOP) population in five main cities in India by trained interviewers. Variables assessed included perceived effectiveness and actual practice of 14 scientific and indigenous personal protection methods, Malaria-related attitudes (susceptibility, severity and response efficacy) and health information seeking preferences. RESULTS: Actual practice of Malaria preventive behaviours was found to be significantly lower than the perceived effectiveness of each of the fourteen scientific and indigenous methods. Television, newspapers, and mobile phones were reported as the top three preferred media for seeking public health information. Lastly, perceived susceptibility, response efficacy, and health-related media use were found to play significant roles in predicting actual practice behaviours. CONCLUSIONS: Our study highlights a need for health authorities to focus on translating positive attitudes to actual practice of preventive behaviours. Communication efforts may focus on the use of TV, newspapers and mobile phones for greater reach and efficacy. Other implications for Malaria prevention programs are discussed.
author2 Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information
author_facet Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information
Lwin, May Oo
Vijaykumar, Santosh
Lim, Gentatsu
Foo, Schubert
Theng, Yin-Leng
format Article
author Lwin, May Oo
Vijaykumar, Santosh
Lim, Gentatsu
Foo, Schubert
Theng, Yin-Leng
author_sort Lwin, May Oo
title "It's effective but should I bother?" A study of personal protection measures against malaria in urban India
title_short "It's effective but should I bother?" A study of personal protection measures against malaria in urban India
title_full "It's effective but should I bother?" A study of personal protection measures against malaria in urban India
title_fullStr "It's effective but should I bother?" A study of personal protection measures against malaria in urban India
title_full_unstemmed "It's effective but should I bother?" A study of personal protection measures against malaria in urban India
title_sort "it's effective but should i bother?" a study of personal protection measures against malaria in urban india
publishDate 2014
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/104142
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/20354
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