The human element of malaria elimination: accounting for human behaviour and risk perceptions in strategic planning

Objectives

This project proposed to address the malaria issue by bringing together behavioural economic data with dynamical models of malaria transmission, to develop a platform for incorporating human behaviour within elimination strategic planning frameworks. 

The specific aims are:

1.  Analyze data on malaria risk perceptions and malaria treatment/prevention behaviour across a range of endemicity settings in Uganda.
2. Combine this data with a new malaria transmission model to estimate the impact of changing risk perception and behaviour on the efficacy of particular interventions and the timeline for elimination.
3. Publish these results in a high-impact journal.
4. Use this published paper as pilot evidence to develop an R01 proposal to elaborate on this work: to collect data on malaria risk perceptions and behavior across a range of malaria endemicity countries and settings, incorporate realistic changes in human behavior into dynamical models of malaria transmission and control, and create a set of actionable policy guidelines for when and how strategies should shift as transmission is reduced. 

The ultimate goal is to create a tool that can be used for malaria control policies in general, and for elimination feasibility planning in particular.