Abstract
Improving malaria control, hygiene and sanitation in households is a challenge in the health system. Hence, several countries have used community directed distributors (CDDs) to assist in delivering health information and services. Despite their use there is little attempt to profile this group of workers. This was a cross sectional study conducted in 2014 involving 297 CDDs from 3 rural communities in Anambra Central Senatorial Zone of Anambra State. A structured questionnaire was used to obtain information from the respondents during their training in various town halls. Most (44.4%) of CDDs fell within the age range of 29 to 38 years. Only 2.0% of the respondents had no formal education. Major source of water to the household is from water vendors (39.1%) and it takes 87.2% of them less than 30 min to get water. Flush toilet system is mostly used (49.2%) while 9.4% have no toilet facility in the house. Almost 8% throw garbage into the street while majority either burn, bury or take the garbage to public dump site or disposal bin. About 71 and 16.5% wash hands with soap after using the toilet and before eating, respectively. Also 74% of the respondents make use of mosquito net while 64% take child for treatment outside home. Key household practices among CDDs on sewage and refuse disposal and personal hygiene are sub-optimal. Hence, project managers should consider the profile of those selected to be CDDs and establish training programs to improve their habits. Key words: Key household practices, community health workers, health promotion.
Highlights
Poor water supply, sanitation and hygiene are associated with high incidence of diseases, death, low productivity, income and development especially in rural communities of developing countries
In 1998 the Roll Back Malaria Initiative was launched by World Health Organization/United Nations International Children Education Fund (WHO/UNICEF) and other partners
The objective of this paper is to determine some of the Key Household Practices of CDDs in a resource-poor setting. This was cross sectional study done in February, 2014 and involved 297 community directed distributors from 3 rural communities (Ozubulu, Ihiala and Osumenyi) in Anambra Central senatorial zone in South Eastern Nigeria with population of about 158,885 people (Brown et al, 2006)
Summary
Sanitation and hygiene are associated with high incidence of diseases, death, low productivity, income and development especially in rural communities of developing countries. In2012 the World Health Organization/United Nations Children’s Fund Joint Monitoring Programme reported that only 30% of the population in sub-Saharan Africa use improved private. Being 2015 it has become obvious that the MDG 7 which aims to halve by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basis sanitation (Ekane et al, 2012) will not be achieved in Nigeria. Another key household practice that impacts on family health especially on children and pregnant mothers is malaria control. The success of malaria control programmes relies heavily on community perception and practices in the prevention, treatment and control of the disease (Iwueze et al, 2013)
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