Vol 12, Issue 3, 2019 Online - 2455-3891 Print - 0974-2441 PATIENTS’ KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDES, AND PRACTICES ON UNCOMPLICATED MALARIA MANAGEMENT IN PLATEAU STATE, NORTH-CENTRAL NIGERIA NANLOH S JIMAM 1,2 , NAHLAH E ISMAIL 1 * 1 Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, MAHSA University, Selangor, Malaysia, 2 Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacy Practice, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Jos, Jos, Nigeria. Email: nahlah@mahsa.edu.my Received: 17 November 2018, Revised and Accepted: 13 January 2019 ABSTRACT Objectives: This study aimed to assess patients’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) on uncomplicated malaria management in primary health- care (PHC) facilities of Plateau state, Nigeria. Methods: A validated self-reported scale known as patients’ KAP instrument for uncomplicated malaria with Cronbach’s alpha reliability of 0.74 was administered to 956 patients that consented to participate in the study across 24 PHC facilities in the state between May and July 2017. The collated data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel and IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS ® ) version 23 software. Results: There were more female participants (53.5%) compared to the males (46.5%), and majority (33.4%) within the age range of 28 and 37 years with 26.5% falling within the age range of 18–27 years and children of <18 years of age constituted 13.8% of the study population. About 42.1% of the respondents were married, and many either had secondary (37.3%) or primary (30.0%) education as their highest qualifications. With overall mean (±standard deviation [SD]) attitudes’ score of 34.55 (±7.20), majority (50.8%) were categorized as having average positive attitudes toward disease and its management, and many of them (55.2%) also had good knowledge (mean [±SD] score=4.59 [±1.44]) and practices (67.1%) (mean [±SD] score=14.98 [±3.44]) on the disease and its management. Conclusion: The study indicated respondents’ knowledge and practices on uncomplicated malaria as good, while their attitudes toward the disease and its management were average. Keywords: Antimalarial drugs, Knowledge, Attitudes and practices, Patients, Primary health care, Uncomplicated malaria. INTRODUCTION Malaria is a vector-borne disease caused by Plasmodium parasites and is common in tropical and subtropical climates [1]. It is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in sub-Saharan Africa, with about 88% and 90% of the estimated global cases and deaths, respectively, occurring in the region [1,2]. Nigeria was responsible for about 25% of the African malaria burdens, with Plasmodium falciparium responsible for about 98% of the cases, and the disease accounted for about 60% outpatient visits to health facilities in the country in 2015 [2,3]. This has been linked to many factors including high prevalence of inappropriate use of antimalarial drugs and favorable climatic conditions of the areas which have been shown to encourage the survival and productivity of the vector mosquitoes [4-9]. Patients’ inappropriate medications practices have been shown to be associated with many factors which could either be intentional or unintentional, complexity of a medication regimen (polypharmacy) and patient’s memory, health-care professionals’ practices, or even economic reasons among many factors [10-13]. Considering the established interrelationships between the human behavior-related characteristics such as knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) and their influence on rational management of ailments [14-16], evaluation of these patients’ behavior-related attributes as it relates to the management of uncomplicated malaria becomes necessary for intervention purposes, especially at the rural communities where majority of the populations are most affected by the disease [6,12,14,17,18]. The present study was mainly to assess patients’ KAP toward uncomplicated malaria management in primary health-care (PHC) facilities in Plateau state, Nigeria. METHODS Ethics approval The study was approved by the Joint Research Review and Ethics Committee, Research Management Centre (RMC), MAHSA University, Malaysia (Ref. number: RMC/EC01/2016; dated 25/11/2016). This was followed by subsequent permission granted by Plateau State Ministry of Health, Jos, Nigeria, and the directors of PHCs of the various selected Local Government Areas to use the PHC facilities. Study design and location A cross-sectional KAP method was used during the survey in Plateau state, located in north-central part of Nigeria with a landmark of 30,913 km 2 and population of 5,178,712 according to 2006 national population census [19]. Sampling methods and sample size estimation A multistage probability sampling techniques including stratified and simple random approaches were used in selecting 24 public PHC facilities across the state, and 50 patients receiving treatment for uncomplicated malaria during the study period were recruited from each of the selected PHC facilities, totaling 1200 calculated sample size for patients to participate in the study [20]. The sample size for the survey was estimated in accordance with the World Health Organization manual on how to investigate drug use in health facilities [20,21]. Study instrument The instrument comprised four subsections. The sociodemographic characteristics subsection consisted of six items that inquired basic information on the respondents including gender, age, marital status, level of education, occupation, and monthly income. © 2019 The Authors. Published by Innovare Academic Sciences Pvt Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by/4. 0/) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22159/ajpcr.2019.v12i3.30459 Research Article