Abstract
This study assesses knowledge of malaria diagnosis and prevention, examining how awareness of low malaria transmission influences diagnostic and preventive practices for malaria elimination. A cross-sectional study of sample size of 600 was conducted among staff from Federal College of Medical Laboratory Science and Technology, Jos; Plateau State College of Health Technology, Zawan, and Federal College of Veterinary and Medical Laboratory Technology, Vom in Plateau State, Nigeria, between March and June 2023 to gather information on the knowledge of malaria, malaria diagnosis, and malaria prevention. Plateau State is located in the North Central region of Nigeria at 9° 10' N 9° 45' E coordinates. The study explored the logistic regression analysis to assess the association between low transmission, knowledge diagnosis, and malaria prevention; also applied correlation analysis to assess the relationship between low transmission, knowledge diagnosis, and malaria prevention. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 25, with a significance level set at p < 0.05. Results showed that 97.33% of participants had heard of malaria, with hospital workers being the main information source (38%). Stagnant water was identified as the primary mosquito breeding site (80%), and fever with shivering/sweating was the most recognized symptom (45.33%). Notably, 66.67% of participants were unaware of low malaria transmission levels and associated elimination challenges. Insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) emerged as the best-known prevention method (41.67%), followed by antimalarial drugs (27.5%), Indoors residual spraying (18.33%), and use of mosquito repellent (12.5%) while 63.33% were unaware of malaria vaccines. The study found significant positive correlations between awareness of low malaria transmission and malaria prevention (r(s) = 0.225, P = 0.001) and diagnosis (r(s) = 0403, P < 0.001); (r(s) = 0.330, P < 0.001) across the different institutions. Further findings from multivariate logistic regression showed that participants with improved awareness of low levels of malaria transmission have higher odds of having increased knowledge of malaria diagnosis and higher odds of having increased knowledge of malaria prevention. Specifically, for FCMLST, the participants with improved awareness of low levels of malaria transmission have 35.0% higher odds of having increased knowledge of malaria diagnosis and 66.4% higher odds of having increased knowledge of malaria prevention. Similar findings were also observed for the other two institutions. The results demonstrate that improved awareness of low malaria transmission significantly increases the likelihood of better diagnostic knowledge and preventive practices thus underscoring the critical role of awareness in malaria elimination efforts, highlighting the significant link between low malaria transmission levels and enhanced knowledge of malaria diagnosis and prevention. These findings highlight the need for targeted education campaigns to bridge knowledge gaps in malaria prevention and elimination.