Ownership and Use of Insecticide Treated Nets in Selected Rural Communities of Oyo State, Nigeria: Implication for Policy Action

Abstract

Introduction: Insecticide Treated Net (ITN) coverage and use remain low in Sub-Sahara Africa. The study assessed factors associated with ITN use in the rural settings of Nigeria. Methodology: Descriptive epidemiological design was employed and multi-stage sampling technique used to select 381 consenting participants in four rural communities of Oyo State, Nigeria. Interviewer-administered, semi-structured questionnaire was used for data collection and analyses done using SPSS; bi-variate analyses were done using chi-square test and binary-logistic regression was used to identify factors that were significantly associated with ITN use. Level of statistical significance was set at p<0.05. Result: The mean age of the respondents was 30±8 years. While 90.1% of the participants possessed ITNs, only 69.3% of them slept under the nets a night before the survey. Respondents who were less than 19 years of age had significantly lesser odds of ITN use compared to older women ((OR; 0.87, CI; 0.82-0.93). Also, women with no formal education had significantly lesser odds of ITN use compared to those with tertiary education (OR; 0.14, CI; 0.02-0.73). Respondents whose households’ monthly income was more than $64 had significantly higher odds of ITN use compared to households earning less (OR; 6.94, CI; 2.76-17.42). Pregnant women were ten times more likely to use ITN compared to non-pregnant participants (OR; 9.84, CI; 1.03-93.88). Conclusion: There is urgent need for more awareness creation on benefits of ITN use particularly among teenage mothers in Nigeria.