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Determine Significant Factors Related to Malaria
among Pregnant Women in
Nigeria by Logistic Regression Analysis
İlker Etikan*, Rukayya Alkassim, Özgür Tosun, Yavuz Sanisoğlu S and Meliz Yuvalı
Department of Biostatistics, Near East University, Cyprus
Introduction
A life hostile parasitic infectious disease conveyed by female
anopheles mosquitoes is called malaria [1]. In human body,
malaria is caused by a protozoan of the Plasmodium type of the
four subspecies, which include P.falciparum, P.vivax, P.malariae
and P.ovale. The subspecie that causes greatest sickness and death
in African countries was P. falciparum. This parasitic disease is
transmitted by the bites of female anopheles mosquitoes of the
genus Anopheles which is the most efficient and responsible for
disease transmission in Africa [2]. Initially the parasite starts by
infecting the liver where it begins to build up. After some days, the
developing parasites are discharged into the blood stream to infect
the red blood cells, where they continue to increase, ultimately
bursting the red blood cells and infecting others in advance. If they
reach high numbers, they may cause severe disease or even death
as well [3].
One of the major health problems that cause both maternal and
neonatal mortality is malaria during pregnancy. Low birth weight
is one of the major factors that cause child mortality, where malaria
during pregnancy reduces the birth weight. In Africa, maternal
and neonatal mortality were associated with up to 300,000 death
estimate in each year as indicated by statistics [4]. Luxemburger
[5] make an estimate among Koran population living in Thailand,
malaria during antenatal period have an effect on child mortality
during the first month of child’s life [6]. Examined the Status of
Pregnant Women having in Lagos State, Nigeria [7]. Examined the
Inferiority of Single-Dose Sulfadoxine-Pyrimethamine Intermittent
*Corresponding author: İlker Etikan, Department of Biostatistics, Near East
University, Faculty of Medicine, Nicosia-TRNC, Cyprus.
Received Date: : January 28, 2019
Published Date: February 15, 2019
ISSN: 2641-6336 DOI: 10.33552/ABBA.2019.01.000517
Annals of
Biostatistics & Biometric Applications
Research Article Copyright © All rights are reserved by İlker Etikan
This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License ABBA.MS.ID.000517.
Abstract
Objectives: Malaria during antenatal period was a major health problem that lead to both mother and child death. The aim of
this study is to assess the predictors of malaria during pregnancy among six states of Nigeria based on anti-malarial pill prescribed
to pregnant women by the health facility.
Methods: The analysis involves chi-square test for independent association between the predictors and risk of malaria diagnosis
among the qualitative variables, Mann Whitney u test for quantitative variables and binary logistic regression for the multivariate
analysis.
Results: The analysis shows that the risk of malaria during pregnancy was significantly associated with Age, IPTp-up take, ITN
use, source of energy for lightening, main material use for room’s rooftop and livestock keeping. This shows that, appropriate use
of insecticide treated bed nets, optimal IPTp uptake against malaria and other protective measures, teamed with some elements
such as sources of energy for lightening and main material for room’s rooftop decreased the incidence of malaria infectious disease
among antenatal women.
Conclusion: The research suggested that the illiterates and poor women are less probable of using these preventive measures
in other to reduce the spread of malaria disease among pregnant women and entire population as whole.
Keywords: Malaria; Pregnancy; Chi square test; Mann whitney - U test; Logistic regression