AWARENESS STUDY OF THE ANTI-MALARIA ACTIVITY OF COCOA POWDER IN OYO STATE, NIGERIA

The high awareness level of the beneficial effect of cocoa powder which is accompanied by low consumption is a source of concern in Nigeria over the years. The awareness level of health benefit of cocoa consumption is (70.0%) while consumption rate of cocoa powder is as low as (31.3%). The resultant effect of this is the high expenditure on treatment of malaria (57.3%) of the respondent spent close to 3999 in the treatment of malaria. However, many used various means of treatment while (50.0%) spend money on drugs for malaria treatments. Those who consumed cocoa powder frequently is as low as (13.0%) while 56.0% rarely consumed in spite of knowledge of the beneficial effect of regular intake of cocoa powder on human health. Similarly, the results from this study shows that, the health history of consumption among respondent with genotype AA is as high as (46.7%), these have health history of frequent malaria occurrence (54.7%), high family attack of malaria (66.7%) while (50.0%) of these respondents used drug for treatment of malaria.