title: Socio-economic & household risk factors of malaria in tribal areas of Madhya Pradesh, central India.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Malaria is a major public health problem in many States of the country, particularly, in Madhya Pradesh where both Plasmodium vivax and P. falciparum are endemic. Although many studies have been conducted to investigate risk factors for malaria, but only a few have examined household and socio-economic risk factors. The present study was, therefore, undertaken to explore the relationship of different socio-demographic, socio-economic and behavioural risk factors with malaria prevalence in tribal areas of Madhya Pradesh, India.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study was undertaken in all 62 villages of Bargi Primary Health Centre from May 2005 to June 2008. These villages comprised 7117 households with an average family size of five members. Fortnightly fever surveys were conducted in all villages to assess prevalence of malaria infection in the community. The distinct univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were fitted on the data set.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The important socio-demographic risk factors like age of household head, social group, occupation and family size; socio-economic factors like type of walls of house, place of drinking water source, irrigated land, cash crop; and behavioural variables like place of sleeping, use of bed nets, etc. were found significantly associated with malaria in univariate analyses. In multivariate analyses only social groups, family size, type of walls of house, and place of sleeping had strong significant association with prevalence of malaria.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study shows that in tribal areas where people are living in poor quality of houses with no proper use of preventive measures, malaria is firmly established. We conclude that community based interventions which bring improvement in standard of living, access to healthcare facilities and health awareness, will have a significant impact on malaria prevention in these areas.
authors.forename: Ravendra K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.forename: Mrigendra P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Kalyan B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Saha
authors.forename: Praveen K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Bharti
authors.forename: Vidhan
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Jain
authors.forename: P P
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Nipun
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Silawat
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hussain
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Chand
authors.forename: Arvind
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pandey
authors.affiliation: National Institue for Research in Tribal Health (ICMR); National Institute of Malaria Research (Field Station) (ICMR), Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Neeru
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Singh
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D016778:Malaria, Falciparum / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000469:parasitology* / Q000635:transmission; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010963:Plasmodium falciparum / Q000472:pathogenicity; D044382:Population Groups; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors