Source and Use of Insecticide Treated Net and Malaria Prevalence in Ghana

Abstract

This study contends that the achievement of the Global objective of reducing malaria prevalence through the scaling up of Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs) is largely dependent on the extent of education incorporated into its distribution by the sources (distributors). The study categorises the sources into those that include some sort of education about how to use the nets and those that do not and examines the effect of these sources on the relationship between ITN use and malaria prevalence in Ghana. A recursive bivariate probit estimation technique that addresses endogeneity between ITN use and malaria prevalence was used to analyse data on 2,908 under-five children from the 2011 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS). The descriptive results revealed that the proportion of ITN usage among children in households who acquired their ITNs from government, NGOs and Community Based Agents (CBAs) was higher than the proportion of usage among those who acquired their ITNs from private health centres, market, shops and street vendors that do not include education. The estimation shows that controlling for other socio-demographic factors, sleeping under ITN reduces the likelihood of experiencing malaria by 22 percent. Conclusion: Scaling up ITN distribution is not enough to ensure utilisation and the expected reduction in malaria prevalence unless the source includes education.