Individual and contextual correlates of mosquito net use among women in Nigeria

Sulaimon T Adedokun,Olalekan A Uthman

doi:10.1186/s12936-020-03219-3

Sulaimon T Adedokun, Olalekan A Uthman

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-020-03219-3

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Abstract

BackgroundMalaria has been described as an urgent public health priority with almost half of the world’s population being at risk. Use of insecticide-treated nets is considered one of the effective ways of preventing malaria. Nigeria, which is ranked among the five countries that are responsible for almost half of the global malaria cases, has less than half of its women population using mosquito nets. This study examined the effects of individual and contextual factors on the use of mosquito nets among women of reproductive age in Nigeria.MethodsThis study used data obtained from 2015 Nigeria Malaria Indicator Survey (NMIS) which involved 6048 women aged 15–49 who possessed at least one mosquito net. Multilevel binary logistic regression models were applied in the multivariable analysis.ResultsAbout 53% of the women used mosquito nets with more than 60% of uneducated and poor women in this category. The use of mosquito nets was significantly associated with being from poor households, having knowledge about the cause of malaria, having access to malaria messages, possessing knowledge about the efficacy of malaria prevention drugs during pregnancy, having knowledge about the importance of tests to detect malaria, maintaining small household size and living in the most socioeconomically disadvantaged communities and states.ConclusionsThe study revealed that mosquito net use among women in Nigeria is affected by individual and contextual factors. It is important for policy makers to design a mosquito-net-use model which would take individual and contextual factors into consideration.

Highlights

Malaria has been described as an urgent public health priority with almost half of the world’s population being at risk
The results show that if a woman moved to another community or state with a higher probability of mosquito net use, the likelihood of using mosquito nets would increase by 2.07 and 1.52 times respectively
This study has demonstrated that the use of mosquito nets among women of reproductive age in Nigeria is influenced by both individual and contextual factors

Summary

Introduction

Malaria has been described as an urgent public health priority with almost half of the world’s population being at risk. Nigeria, which is ranked among the five countries that are responsible for almost half of the global malaria cases, has less than half of its women population using mosquito nets. Malaria, which is linked to high morbidity and mortality among women and children, has been described as an urgent public health priority [1]. Malaria among women of reproductive age has attracted attention due to its effects on the women and their reproductive process. In 2017, about 3.1 billion dollars was spent on such programmes with 28% provided by governments of endemic countries [2] One of these strategies is the Global Technical Strategy for Malaria 2016–2030 of the World Health Organization (WHO). It was adopted in 2015 by the World Health Assembly and designed to achieve the following by 2030: (i) reduce malaria mortality rates by at least 90% (ii) eliminate malaria from at least

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