PENGETAHUAN, SIKAP DAN PERILAKU KAITANNYA DENGAN PENULARAN DAN PENCEGAHAN MALARIA DI KABUPATEN KEPULAUAN MENTAWAI, PROVINSI SUMATERA BARAT

The survey of knowledge, attitude and behaviour of the communities in relation of malaria was carried out in Mentawai islands. The objective of the survey was to know the community's knowledge, attitude and behaviour related of malaria and the efforts to prevent malaria endemic. This type of researchis a quantitative research with cross-sectional study design. The research subjects were taken are the mothers with children under nine years old. The sample taken from 6 (six) Community Health Centres (Puskesmas). The sample were 750. The results showed that most of the respondents (62.4%) stated that they have ever heard about malaria. There are 49.0% of the respondents who stated that the symptoms of malaria are fever and cold, and there are 29.4% who mentioned dizzy/headache. About the causes of malaria, there are 38.7% of the respondents who said that it is caused by mosquito bites, and there are 18.0% who mentioned dirty environment as the cause of malaria. The efforts of whom that are usually done to prevent from being bitten by malaria mosquitoes are sleeping using mosquito-nets (79.3%) and using mosquito repellent (75.1%). In general, the communities had knew that in order to prevent the spread of malaria, they need to use mosquito repellent and sleep using mosquito nets (there are 85.6% of the respondents who agree with using mosquito nets and there are 93.1% of them who have had mosquito nets. Keywords: Malana, knowledge, attitude and behaviour, preven