Communities’ Perceptions on the Relationship between Climate Variability and the Incidence of Malaria and Coping Strategies to Prevent Malaria Infection in Arsi Nagelle District, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia

Abstract

Climate change and variability can lead to an expansion of the areas suitable for malaria transmission, and thus increase risk of the disease. The purpose of the current study was to examine communities’ perception on the association between climate variability and malaria incidence and coping strategies to prevent malaria infection in Arsi Nagelle district, Oromia Region, Ethiopia. The study was conducted in three rural kebeles, (Haadha-Boso, Kersa-ilala and Meraro-hawilo) which were purposively selected as representatives of lowland, midland and highland agro-ecological zones of the district respectively. Quantitative data were collected through household questionnaire survey, while qualitative data were collected through key informant interviews and focus group discussion. In an effort to make this research more valid, creditable and applicable secondary sources which are important to the study were reviewed. For the questionnaire survey, 143 rural households were randomly selected from the three rural kebeles. The data was analyzed by using descriptive statistics. An average of 65% of the respondents perceived that there has been increasing in temperature and decreasing in rainfall in the district. However, there was significant difference between lowland and highland dwellers on the perception of the climatic variability. Majority of the respondents in the lowland and midland kebeles (95.70% and 81.80%, respectively) perceived that the increasing of the temperature is causing malaria incidence in their area, while only (59.60%) of the highland household respondents had a similar attitude. Spraying houses with insecticides and the use of insecticide treated mosquito nets were the predominantly adopted preventive strategies against malaria infection practiced in the study area.

Key Words/Phrases: Climate variability, household’s perception, Malaria incidence, coping strategies