Socio-economic risk factors for malaria in a peri-urban area of The Gambia.

Successful control of malaria depends upon a detailed knowledge of its epidemiology, including knowledge of the social and economic factors that influence its prevalence. Little is known about the socio-economic factors that influence the prevalence of malaria in tropical Africa. Therefore, we undertook such a study in over 350 Gambian children with malaria resident in a peri-urban area with seasonal transmission, using the case-control approach. Malaria was associated with poor quality housing and crowding and with travel to rural areas, where the level of malaria transmission is higher than in urban centres. No association was found between the risk of malaria and the overall education level of parents or guardians of study children. However, the knowledge of malaria possessed by mothers of cases of malaria was less than that of controls, suggesting that further education of the study community on the causation of malaria and on ways of preventing it could be of value.