Role of Information and Communication Networks in Malaria Survival

This research from the Malaria Journal, Volume 6(1):136, investigates the impact of information and communication network (ICN) density variables on malaria death probability. It pools data from 70 different countries to construct a panel dataset of health and socio-economic variables for a time span of 1960-2004 to study the effects of the density of telephone lines and television sets in malaria-exposed populations to see if ICN density improves the effectiveness of existing resources for malaria prevention and treatment.

As stated in the research, immediate diagnosis is important in reducing child mortality in cases of malaria. Because symptoms of malaria (fever onset, particularly) often go untreated, 70 percent of the malaria cases that are treated at home are mismanaged, according to the Multilateral Initiative on Malaria. The study states that "[w]ell-communicated information and collective decision making can lead to faster and superior home based treatment." Through the use of ICN, sources of shared information on treatment of disease can be made available to a community as a kind of social capital. Because studies have shown that communities with high social capital have lower disease rates, and that "mass media and inter-personal communication channels can create a sense of urgency to react and take initiative at the early signs of malaria", the value of ICN for increasing problem identification, decision-making, and resolving problems collectively, "can increase the level of confidence of those infected, and it can pool resources and expertise at the community level to provide treatment in a timely manner. Effective communication can promote health awareness that leads to pro-active treatment of symptoms. Communication can be very effective if it is well-targeted to the groups that are most affected and most likely to act. The Roll Back Malaria (RBM) communication working group has been established to recommend appropriate communication and advocacy initiatives in this context. Given that, the working hypothesis is that ICN can be a key driver in preventing malaria deaths, and the empirical analysis tends to support this hypothesis."

The major finding of this research is that the intensity of ICN is associated with reduced probability of deaths of people that are clinically identified as malaria-infected. "The results suggest that information and communication networks can substantially scale up the effectiveness of the existing resources for malaria prevention... Furthermore, the impact of TV density is much higher compared to telephone density across all models implying that public and mass media has a higher influence on establishing effective ICN outreach... Expanded information and communication networks will widen the avenues for community based 'participatory development', that encourages the use of local information, knowledge and decision making. Timely information, immediate care and collective knowledge based treatment can be extremely important in reducing child mortality and achieving the millennium development goal."