Factors associated with the use of mosquito nets in northern Uganda

Abstract

According to World Health Organization (2019).In Every 2 minutes, a child dies of malaria. And each year, more than 200 million new cases of the disease are reported. This indicates that Uganda has a gap as regards to the achievement of the sustainable development goal (SDG) 3, target 28 of realizing a reduction in malaria which has remained threat to most of the sub-Saharan African countries. This study is aimed at understanding the factors associated with the use of mosquito nets among women aged 15-49 years in Northern Uganda. We used the 2014-2015 Malaria Indicator Survey female data set for women aged 15-49 years. The explanatory variables were, the age of the respondent, place of residence. Education level of the respondents, wealth index, work status, marital status, region and the dependent variable was sleep under mosquito net. The highest percentage of respondents was in age group between 15-19(23.4%).Majority of the respondents expressed that they use mosquito nets with the high response rate of about 79.4% with the biggest number of respondents having attained primary level of education (55.6%).70.5% resided in rural areas Most of them belonged to rich households (47.1%).The Age of the respondents, education level, wealth index, residence and work status were significantly associated with the use of mosquito nets. However, there was no significant relationship between marital status and use of mosquito nets, households who reside in rural areas are less likely to use mosquito nets, and those with higher education levels have positive attitude and interest in using mosquito nets. Interventions to control malaria and improve the use of mosquito nets should include, the worsening situations resulting from both climate changes and environmental factors such as increasing breeding sites for mosquitoes, poor seeking behaviors and costly preventive interventions should in order to control malaria in the population. The government should strengthen health systems through routine monitoring of the health sector. There should be further sensitization of the masses about the how deadly malaria as a disease is, the importance of mosquito bed nets, how to seek health care for malaria treatment. And as from this study, independent factors like Age of respondents, residence, education level, and work status and wealth index were the only predictors of the use of mosquito nets.