Co-Developing with the Victims: a Persuasion System to Address the Behavioural Delinquencies of Africans Towards Malaria

EasyChair Preprint 7113

Abstract

Malaria is one of the most common causes of illness and death in Africa as a whole, and in Nigeria in particular, particularly among pregnant women and children under the age of five. Despite the fact that the concerned authorities have deployed numerous intervention methods in the fight against these death-causing vectors—mosquitoes—the mortality toll has continued to rise. Through observations, interviews, and a review of policy documents, we discovered that while the government has done a good job of providing the majority of the requisite interventions to contain the vector, the people have refused to fully adopt those intervention mechanisms to protect themselves. Further investigation into the causes of people's negative attitudes revealed a lack of motivation due to the passive nature of those intervention systems. The Rollback Malaria (RBM) programme is one example. Secondly, existing systems lacked basic monitoring features to assess users' responsiveness and determine their compliance rate. To drive the research, we created three research questions and primary hypotheses based on them. We used Participatory System Design (PSD) and User Centered Design (UCD) techniques in our system design methodologies to avoid a one-size-fits-all design approach. Information was gathered from relevant subjects using well-structured questionnaires. The findings of the research survey were assessed in accordance with the study's objectives. The variables that restrict people from taking positive malaria preventative and control measures were discovered, as well as persuasive strategies that could be leveraged to encourage people to adopt these behaviors. We harmonized and integrated those factors to create a mobile intervention system: Malaria Prevention and Control Support System (MPCSS).

Keyphrases: Malaria, Malaria Prevention and Control Support System (MPCSS), Persuasion system, intervention system, persuasion strategies

@booklet{EasyChair:7113,
  author    = {Ignatius Ogbaga and Makuochi Nkwo and Ifeyinwa Ajah and Rita Orji},
  title     = {Co-Developing with the Victims: a Persuasion System to Address the Behavioural Delinquencies of Africans Towards Malaria},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint 7113},
  year      = {EasyChair, 2021}}