Gender Disparities in Malaria Outcomes amongst Residents of Edo South Senatorial District, Edo State, Nigeria

Abstract

The debate over which family members are most vulnerable to the malaria disease often highlights gender as a key factor in malaria outcomes. Physiological differences, work environments, and social roles all influence susceptibility. The aim of this research therefore was to ascertain the frequency of occurrence of malaria amongst male and female household members, in order to determine gender disparities as it relates to malaria outcomes in the study area, Questionnaires from household survey were administered to 630 respondents in the study area using the systematic random sampling technique. To ascertain if malaria is gender dependent, a cross tabulation and Pearson Chi-Square test analysis was carried out, with the stated hypothesis that there is no association between the sex of respondents and malaria occurrence. Results from the Chi-square analysis depicted that there was no significant association between the sex of respondents and the number of times they had fallen ill due to malaria in the last one year. With a p-value of 0.9855, which was much higher than the significance level of 0.05, the null hypothesis stating that there is no significant association between the sex of respondents and the number of times they have fallen ill due to malaria was accepted. In order words, sex does not appear to significantly influence the occurrence of malaria amongst respondents in Edo South Senatorial District.