Complexities in Defining the Unit of Intervention for Reactive Community-Based Malaria Treatment in the Gambia
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22077781 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Fatou Jaiteh (0000-0001-9712-295X, MRC Unit the Gambia, corresponding author), Joan Muela Ribera (0000-0003-2111-6275, Observatoire Cantonal de Neuchâtel), Yoriko Masunaga (0000-0003-2648-5440, Netherlands Institute for Social Research), Joseph Okebe (0000-0001-5466-1611, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine), Umberto D’alessandro (0000-0001-6341-5009, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine), Julie Balen (0000-0002-4736-8465, University of Sheffield), Jane Achan (0000-0001-8111-025X, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine), René Gerrets (0000-0003-0516-9377, Netherlands Institute for Social Research), Koen Peeters Grietens (0000-0001-6570-9887, Observatoire Cantonal de Neuchâtel) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 9 |
| Pages | 601152-601152 |
| Publication date | 2021-02-26 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Frontiers in Public Health (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2296-2565 • E-ISSN: 2296-2565 |
| Publisher | Frontiers Media SA (PUBLISHER • CH) |
| DOI | 10.3389/fpubh.2021.601152 |
| PMID | 33718317 |
| OpenAlex | W3135021304 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 62 |
With significant declines in malaria, infections are increasingly clustered in households, or groups of households where malaria transmission is higher than in surrounding household/villages. To decrease transmission in such cases, reactive interventions target household members of clinical malaria cases, with the intervention unit (e.g., the “household/s”) derived from an epidemiological and operational perspective. A lack of unanimity regarding the spatial range of the intervention unit calls for greater importance to be placed on social context in conceptualizing the appropriate unit. A novel malaria elimination strategy based on reactive treatment was recently evaluated by a cluster randomized trial in a low transmission setting in The Gambia. Transdisciplinary research was used to assess and improve the effectiveness of the intervention which consisted, among others, of reflecting on whether the household was the most adequate unit of analysis. The intervention was piloted on the smallest treatment unit possible and was further adapted following a better understanding of the social and epidemiological context. Intervention units defined according to (i) shared sleeping spaces and (ii) household membership, showed substantial limitations as it was not possible to define them clearly and they were extremely variable within the study setting. Incorporating local definitions and community preference in the trial design led to the appropriate intervention unit—the compound—defined as an enclosed space containing one or several households belonging to the same extended patrilineal family. Our study demonstrates the appropriateness of using transdisciplinary research for investigating alternative intervention units that are better tailored to reactive treatment approaches
Environmental health · Geography · Malaria · Political science · Psychological intervention · Unanimity · Global Maternal and Child Health · Malaria Research and Control · Medicine · Mosquito-borne diseases and control · Nursing · Psychology · Epidemiology
Cooking Data Culture and Politics in an African Research World
Community-based participatory research and integrated knowledge translation
Households
Family and Household in Development
Contingent Lives
Misdirection in the margins of malaria elimination methods
The compound as a locus of fertility management
The Bitter Harvest of Gambian Rice Policies
Migrant Groundnut Farmers in the Gambia
Migrant Groundnut Farmers in the Gambia
Cooking Data Culture and Politics in an African Research World
Autocracy, migration, and the Gambia's ‘unprecedented’ 2016 election
Cultural constructions of the concept of household in sample surveys
The household production of health
He is now like a brother, I can even give him some blood' - Relational ethics and material exchanges in a malaria vaccine 'trial community' in The Gambia
Like sugar and honey
Malaria risk behaviours, socio-cultural practices and rural livelihoods in southern Tanzania
UN Census "Households" and Local Interpretations in Africa Since Independence
Household and Community in African Studies
Therapy Management
The Anthropology of Malaria
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2023 - 2024 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |