Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Reducing Avoidable Deaths through Technology: Deployment of Persuasive Technology-Based Model in the Prevention and Control of Malaria in Nigeria

Version 1 : Received: 27 September 2022 / Approved: 29 September 2022 / Online: 29 September 2022 (08:49:42 CEST)

How to cite: Ogbaga, I. Reducing Avoidable Deaths through Technology: Deployment of Persuasive Technology-Based Model in the Prevention and Control of Malaria in Nigeria. Preprints 2022, 2022090461. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202209.0461.v1 Ogbaga, I. Reducing Avoidable Deaths through Technology: Deployment of Persuasive Technology-Based Model in the Prevention and Control of Malaria in Nigeria. Preprints 2022, 2022090461. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202209.0461.v1

Abstract

Malaria is one of the leading causes of illnesses and deaths in Africa at large and Nigeria in particular, especially amongst pregnant women and children under the age of five years. Our research revealed that though the government has deployed so many intervention systems to contend with this death-causing vector—the mosquitoes, malaria related deaths (MRDs) have continued to increase. This is because people have not sufficiently adopted those intervention systems to protect themselves. Further enquiries into the ineffective compliance of the people to the intervention systems revealed that the interventions are passive in nature. Based on these, we set up three measurable research outcomes to enable us to determine the appropriateness of persuasive technology in solving the malaria problem. We technically avoided a one-size-fits-all design approach and adopted Participatory System Design (PSD) and User-Centered Design (UCD) approaches in our system design methodologies. Well-structured questionnaires were used to extract information from the participants. The data obtained from the research survey was used in modeling the intervention system. The research was conducted in three phases: baseline, development and deployment of an intervention system—the Malaria Prevention and Control Support System (MPCSS), and an evaluation study to determine the performance of the intervention system. The research led to the following achievements: (1) encouraged an increase in the number of people who participated in malaria prevention and control activities by lowering the rate of malaria cases from 96.9% to 68.5% and increasing ownership of mosquito nets from 54% to 85.5%; (2) demonstrated that persuasive technology could be used to increase public awareness and knowledge of a given subject as noted in our evaluation result; and (3) demonstrated that persuasive technology is a veritable active intervention to combat malaria.

Keywords

Persuasive Technology; Malaria Prevention and Control Support System (MPCSS); active inter-vention tool; Mosquitoes; Malaria Related Deaths (MRDs)

Subject

Social Sciences, Psychology

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