New Trending Topic in Health COMpass: Using Household Surveys to Inform Malaria SBCC

Malaria is an entirely preventable and treatable disease. Yet, despite the availability of accurate tests and effective treatment, there were approximately 198 million malaria cases of malaria and 584,000 deaths in 2013 alone. It is clear that reducing the global burden of malaria requires comprehensive malaria strategies that go beyond clinical solutions, and also address the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related to malaria prevention and treatment.

Fortunately, social and behavior change communication (SBCC) has been shown to positively influence malaria-related behaviors, such as the use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets, prompt treatment seeking for fever and demand for preventive medicine during pregnancy. SBCC works best when it is targeted, theory-driven, and designed with the local culture and context in mind. Formative research, in the form of household surveys, is key to providing health communication practitioners and decision-makers with the information needed to tailor programs and policies to a population’s needs.

In the newest Trending Topic, the Health COMpass presents a selection of tools and resources for conducting, analyzing, and applying household surveys to malaria SBCC. This page contains a number of resources, ranging from SBCC indicator reference guides to sample household surveys to an online training on evidence-based malaria SBCC. It provides examples from national and more targeted surveys, describes the kind of information that can be gained from each type, and provides practical guidance for applying lessons learned.

This Saturday April 25 marks World Malaria Day 2015, a time for people around the globe to engage in conversation and share resources to mobilize against malaria. We hope that you are able to refer to Trending Topics’ resources in your own project work, and invite you to submit your own resources on household surveys to this collection.