Social determinants of malaria and health care seeking patterns among rice farming and pastoral communities in Kilosa District in central Tanzania.

This study was carried out to understand the role social determinants and health seeking behavior among rice farming and pastoral communities in Kilosa District in central Tanzania. The study involved four villages; two with rice farming communities while the other two with pastoral communities. In each village, heads of households or their spouses were interviewed to seek information on livelihoods activities, knowledge and practices on malaria and its preventions. A total of 471 individuals (males=38.9%; females=61.1%) were interviewed. Only 23.5% of the respondents had adequate knowledge on malaria. Fifty-six percent of the respondents could not associate any livelihood activity with malaria transmission. Majority (79%) of the respondents believed that most of fevers were due to malaria; this was higher among the pastoral (81.7%) than rice farming communities (76.1%) (p=0.038). Cases of fever were significantly higher in households with non-educated (31.2%) than educated respondents (21.5%). Women experienced significantly more episodes of fever than men (p<0.001). Of the total of 2606 individuals living in the households, 26.9% were reported to have had fever in the previous three months. Fever was reported more frequently among pastoral than rice farming communities (p<0.01). Of those who had fever, 36.6% were clinically diagnosed with malaria and 22.9% were confirmed to be infected with malaria. A combination of fever+convulsions or joint pains+headache was most frequently perceived to be malaria. Treatment seeking frequency differed by the size of the household and between rice farming and pastoral communities (p=0.05). In conclusion, education, sex, availability of health care facility and livelihood practices were the major social determinants that influence malaria acquisition and care seeking pattern in central Tanzania. Appropriate public health promotion should be designed to address the links of livelihoods and malaria transmission among rural farming communities in an ecohealth approach.