STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF MALARIA INFECTIOUS DISEASE AND ITS POSSIBLE RISK FACTORS

Abstract

Malaria is an acute febrile illness marked by a high temperature and headaches that is brought on by parasites called Plasmodium, which people get through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes (WHO, 2021). Infants, young children, pregnant women, persons with HIV/AIDS, as well as people with low immunity are the most vulnerable populations. Thus, the study examined the statistical analysis of the malaria infectious disease, sex and age categories. The research adopted descriptive and analytical research design.

The data was taken from the records of 300 patients at the Badore Primary Health Care Center in Lagos' Eti-Osa LGA, in southwest Nigeria. The data used was separated into risk factors including age, gender, and attendance type and outcome variables like malaria disease diagnosis. The epidemiological tools such as incidence rate, relative risk and attributable risk and Chi-square test of association to analyze the data. The analysis was ran on SPSS v25 and EPI Info v7.The malaria disease is 0.81 times less common among male patients than female, also that malaria among male are not attributed to gender difference (attributed risk (21.62%) < 50.0%). The malaria disease is 1.91 time less common among new patients than followed-up patients. More so malaria cases among reported new patients are not attributed to attendance difference because the attributed risk (47.62%) is less than 50.0%. The age and gender were not significantly associated with malaria infection. Though, the proportion of male affected with malaria disease is less than female.