Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42496302›Full record

ArticleInfectious disease reports2026

Ensemble Machine Learning for Malaria Diagnosis in Resource-Limited Settings Using Clinical and Demographic Features.

Panashe Nyengera, Hilary Takunda Takawira, Farai Fredric Mlambo

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Infectious disease reports, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Panashe NyengeraDepartment of Applied Biosciences and Biotechnology, Midlands State University, Private Bag 9055, Gweru, Zimbabwe.
Hilary Takunda TakawiraDepartment of Applied Biosciences and Biotechnology, Midlands State University, Private Bag 9055, Gweru, Zimbabwe.ORCID 0000-0003-3365-7669
Farai Fredric MlamboGraduate School of Business Administration, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2050, South Africa.ORCID 0000-0003-4091-1901

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundSub-Saharan Africa suffers the greatest impact of malaria, with the 2024 Health Organization (WHO )report stating that the region represents 94% of global cases and 95% of deaths. Challenges in malaria elimination stem from weak health systems and limitations of traditional diagnostic methods like microscopy and malaria Rapid Diagnostic Tests (mRDTs), which result in missed diagnoses, delays in treatment, and preventable fatalities in resource-limited settings. This paper addresses these diagnostic limitations by developing and systematically evaluating a machine learning (ML) framework for malaria diagnosis that leverages routine clinical symptoms and demographic information tailored for these environments.

methodsExamining 637 patient records from Gutu Mission Hospital and Gweru Provincial Hospital in Zimbabwe, the research analyzed clinical symptoms (fever, chills, abdominal pain, headache, diarrhea) and demographic data (age, gender, residence, travel history). Data preprocessing involved addressing class imbalance with the Synthetic Minority Oversampling Technique (SMOTE) and employing Recursive Feature Elimination (RFE) for feature selection. Seven ML models were trained: Logistic Regression, Random Forest, Decision Trees, Gradient Boosting, K-Nearest Neighbor, Naive Bayes, and XGBoost. These individual models were used to construct ensemble models like Bagging, Stacking, Soft Voting, and AdaBoost. Performance metrics included accuracy, precision, confusion matrices, recall, F1 score, and AUC-ROC.

resultsStatistically significant predictors for malaria included chills (

conclusionsThis study underscores the potential of ML, particularly ensemble techniques, to enhance malaria management in resource-limited settings, providing a scalable and cost-effective diagnostic alternative that utilizes accessible clinical and demographic data, thereby supporting healthcare workers and control programs in areas where traditional methods are inadequate.

Indexed as

ensemble modelsmachine learningmalaria diagnosisresource-limited settings

Identifiers

PMID42496302
PMCPMC13398222

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.