• Osadolor Ebhuoma, Michael Gebreslasie, and Ropo Ebenezer Ogunsakin.
• Geography and Environmental Sciences, School of Agricultural, Earth, and Environmental Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville Campus, Durban, 4000, South Africa.
• Afr Health Sci. 2022 Jun 1; 22 (2): 204215204-215.

BackgroundUnderstanding the socioeconomic status that influences malaria transmission in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa is vital in creating policies and strategies to combat malaria transmission, improve socioeconomic conditions and strengthen the malaria elimination campaign.ObjectivesTo determine the relationship between socioeconomic status and malaria incidence in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.MethodsSocioeconomic information (gender, age, no formal education, no electricity, no toilet facilities, unemployment) and malaria data for 2011 were obtained from Statistics South Africa and the malaria control program of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa respectively. The analysis was conducted employing the Bayesian multiple regression model.ResultsThe obtained posterior samples show that all the variables employed in this study were significant and positive predictors of malaria disease at 95% credible interval. The low socioeconomic status that exhibited the strongest association with malaria risk was lack of toilet facilities (odd ratio =12.39; 95% credible interval = 0.61, 24.36). This was followed by no formal education (odd ratio =11.11; 95% credible interval = 0.51, 24.10) and lack of electricity supply (odd ratio =8.94; 95% credible interval = 0.31, 23.21) respectively.ConclusionsLow socioeconomic status potentially sustains malaria transmission and burden. As an implication, poverty alleviation and malaria intervention resources should be incorporated side by side into the socioeconomic framework to attain zero malaria transmission.© 2022 Ebhuoma O et al.

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