Political ecology of malaria prevalence in urban Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigates the spatial prevalence of malaria in urban Nigeria as a reflection of the population’s residential habitat quality and the distributional pattern of healthcare resources in the study area. Both factors are conceptualized as being products of urban governance and corollaries of territorial distributive justice. Secondary data on clinically-diagnosed cases of malaria, population, and the location of healthcare facilities in the study area were subjected to various statistical and descriptive analyses. The results show a bias in the distribution of the facilities against high density residential neighborhoods populated mostly by the less affluent and an inverse relationship between the availability of health facilities and disease prevalence. The relationship was however not statistically significant. Conscious urban planning efforts, rather than politics and economic considerations, are suggested to address the inequalities in environmental quality and the distribution of healthcare facilities as both were found to influence health outcomes in the study area.

Keywords: Political Ecology, Health Inequality, Residential Neighborhood, Malaria, Urban Planning