Background: The study area is Olambe, a fast-growing community in Ogun State, Nigeria. It shares the same boundary with
Lagos State, Nigeria. It is highly populated due to high cost of rent and high cost of living in Lagos State which made lots of
the inhabitants to migrate to neighbouring towns with easy access to Lagos State especially for workers or employees of
Lagos State. The effect of home-based management of malaria (HMM) was carried out in Olambe in 2013. HMM is a major
means of treatment in this part of Ogun State because the general hospitals or government hospitals available are only in
Lagos State and it is quite a distance. A large percentage of the populace receives treatments from private-owned hospitals or
solely depends on HMM.
Methods: The sampling population was 250 respondents which are mothers of children under the age of five years.
Structured questionnaires and oral interview were used in collecting data from the 250 consenting individuals.
Results: A large percentage of the respondents were traders and not-well educated individuals (65.0%) who believed so
much in home-based management of malaria due to financial difficulties, ignorance and distance to hospitals. About 5.5%
are not educated and they attributed the ineffectiveness of some malaria drugs to fake drugs. They therefore use different
herbal treatments. About 30.5% use both malaria drugs and herbal treatments for the treatment of malaria. The major factor
for ineffective HMM in Olambe is wrong dosage of anti-malarial drugs, herbal treatment and wrong diagnosis. Artemisininbased
combination therapies (ACTS) was the preferred anti-malarial drug in this area. There is poor correlation between the
reoccurrence of malaria and the type of drug used for the children (p<0.05). Reoccurrence of malaria symptoms is not
necessarily as a result of the type of drugs used to treat it. Other factors could be responsible for the reoccurrence of malaria.
There is a strong correlation between the reoccurrence of malaria and the use of herbal drugs (p>0.05)
Conclusion: This study deduced that few respondents practice HMM correctly while many of them end up in hospitals due
to lack of ideal dosage of anti-malarial drugs. A large percentage of respondents take traditional treatments. There is paucity
of information on the use of HMM in Olambe, Ogun State, Nigeria and therefore a need to improve HMM, organize
programmes to sensitize the area and the local communities around Olambe on the way forward in HMM.