Factors associated with mosquito net ownership and use among children below 15 years

Abstract

Malaria is the leading cause of death in Uganda, especially among children below 15 years. One of the most effective ways of protecting against deadly malaria is a consistent use of a treated mosquito net. It has been shown in studies that community-level use of mosquito nets significantly reduces malaria transmission in children less than 5 years. The aim of study was to find out demographic, socio-economic factors, and knowledge, attitude and practices associated with mosquito net ownership and use among children below 15 years. A case study of Aduku sub-county in Kwania district. Secondary data was used which was obtained from Uganda National Demographic survey at Uganda Bureau of statistics. The outcome was mosquito net ownership and use measured as slept under a mosquito net the previous night. A logistic regression was used to explore factors associated with mosquito net ownership and use among children below 15 years.It was revealed majority (77.8%) knew mosquito breeding sites as stagnant water while 76.7% of respondents had Community Worker or Village Health Team in their community. At bivariate level of analysis, Sex of the child, Presence of Community Worker or Village Health Team (CW or VHT) in the community, knowledge about mosquito biting period/time and knowledge about mosquito breeding sites were statistically significant at 5% level of significance hence associated with mosquito net ownership and use. The final results showed that sex of a child (AOR: 2.3879; p-value: 0.009), presence of community worker or village health team (AOR: 5.1616; p-value = 0.000), knowledge about mosquito biting period (AOR: 0.2818; p-value: 0.000) and knowledge about mosquito breeding sites (AOR: 62.2159; p-value: 0.000) were statistically significant with mosquito net ownership and use. Furthermore, age of a child had no significant association with mosquito net ownership and use reported by p-values greater than 5% level of significance. In light of the findings, the following hypotheses were supported; demographic factor such as Sex of the child, socio-economic factors such as presence of Community Worker or Village Health Team in the community, knowledge about mosquito breeding sites and biting time/period were significantly associated with mosquito net ownership and use among children below 15 years. On the other hand, the following hypotheses were not supported; age of a child had no significant association with mosquito net ownership and use.