Spatial Distribution of Malaria Incidence in Sabah from 2012 to 2016

Objective: Malaria is a significant public health problem in developing countries. Spatial pattern of malaria was developed by geospatial tools from other countries were proven as an effective ways in malaria control programme especially to curb the disease spread. This study aims to observe spatial distribution and patterns
explicitly in Sabah from year 2012 to 2016. From this we can provide explanation on malaria patterns and its spatial variations.

Methods: Yearly dataset on malaria cases was used in this study from 2012 to 2016 which was compiled by Sabah Health State Department, Ministry of Health Malaysia. Kriging interpolation method in Geographical Information System (GIS) was applied to analyze the 5-year study period. Moran’s I was used to determine
the spatial autocorrelation between districts in Sabah.

Results: The incidence rate of malaria in Sabah shows reducing trend during the 5-year study period. The highest incidence rate involved the central and western of Sabah with more than 200 per 100,000 populations. Moran’s I statistics for all the years indicates that incidence of malaria is clustered (p-value<0.05).

Conclusion: Geospatial analysis is a useful tool in order to investigate the relationship between malaria incidences and shows spatial variations. This information helps the health authorities to emphasize the specific area in intervening malaria problem.