title: Why is malaria associated with poverty? Findings from a cohort study in rural Uganda.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Malaria control and sustainable development are linked, but implementation of 'multisectoral' intervention is restricted by a limited understanding of the causal pathways between poverty and malaria. We investigated the relationships between socioeconomic position (SEP), potential determinants of SEP, and malaria in Nagongera, rural Uganda.
  
  
  METHODS
  Socioeconomic information was collected for 318 children aged six months to 10 years living in 100 households, who were followed for up to 36 months. Mosquito density was recorded using monthly light trap collections. Parasite prevalence was measured routinely every three months and malaria incidence determined by passive case detection. First, we evaluated the association between success in smallholder agriculture (the primary livelihood source) and SEP. Second, we explored socioeconomic risk factors for human biting rate (HBR), parasite prevalence and incidence of clinical malaria, and spatial clustering of socioeconomic variables. Third, we investigated the role of selected factors in mediating the association between SEP and malaria.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Relative agricultural success was associated with higher SEP. In turn, high SEP was associated with lower HBR (highest versus lowest wealth index tertile: Incidence Rate Ratio 0.71, 95 % confidence intervals (CI) 0.54-0.93, P = 0.01) and lower odds of malaria infection in children (highest versus lowest wealth index tertile: adjusted Odds Ratio 0.52, 95 % CI 0.35-0.78, P = 0.001), but SEP was not associated with clinical malaria incidence. Mediation analysis suggested that part of the total effect of SEP on malaria infection risk was explained by house type (24.9 %, 95 % CI 15.8-58.6 %) and food security (18.6 %, 95 % CI 11.6-48.3 %); however, the assumptions of the mediation analysis may not have been fully met.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Housing improvements and agricultural development interventions to reduce poverty merit further investigation as multisectoral interventions against malaria. Further interdisplinary research is needed to understand fully the complex pathways between poverty and malaria and to develop strategies for sustainable malaria control.
authors.affiliation: Department of Disease Control, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK. lucy.tusting@lshtm.ac.uk.|Big Data Institute, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. lucy.tusting@lshtm.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Lucy S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Tusting
authors.affiliation: Infectious Diseases Research Collaboration, Kampala, Uganda.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rek
authors.affiliation: Infectious Diseases Research Collaboration, Kampala, Uganda.|Department of Clinical Research, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
authors.forename: Emmanuel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Arinaitwe
authors.affiliation: Infectious Diseases Research Collaboration, Kampala, Uganda.|Department of Clinical Research, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
authors.forename: Sarah G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Staedke
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Makerere University College of Health Sciences, Kampala, Uganda.
authors.forename: Moses R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Kamya
authors.affiliation: Department of Disease Control, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cano
authors.affiliation: MRC Tropical Epidemiology Group, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bottomley
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics, SOAS, University of London, London, UK.
authors.forename: Deborah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Johnston
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, USA.
authors.forename: Grant
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dorsey
authors.affiliation: School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Durham University, Durham, UK.
authors.forename: Steve W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Lindsay
authors.affiliation: Department of Disease Control, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
authors.forename: Jo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lines
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D016778:Malaria, Falciparum / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000469:parasitology; D010963:Plasmodium falciparum / Q000502:physiology; D011203:Poverty; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012424:Rural Population; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014454:Uganda / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: Development; Housing; Malaria; Poverty; Socioeconomic; Uganda; Wealth index