USE OF MOSQUITO REPELLENT: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN SLUM AND PLANNED RESIDENTIAL AREAS OF KHULNA CITY CORPORATION IN THE SOUTH-WEST BANGLADESH

Abstract

People in developing countries like Bangladesh often ignore the harmful effect of using mosquito repellents on health as well as environment. This is a cross-sectional study among adult individuals selected from planned residential (60) and slum (60) areas of Khulna City Corporation in the south-west Bangladesh considering the user (64) and non-user (56) of repellents chosen through applying a stratified systematic random sampling method. Most of the surveyed people use mosquito repellents at evening and at night while sleeping. Poor slum people mainly use local brand coil, while a comparatively high income earner planned residential people use variety of repellents. This study finds that the planned residential people spend more on repellent purchase per month than slum people. The smoke congestion of living room due to use of repellent is more evident in slum areas compared to planned residential areas. Feeling sick due to this smoke is also more evident in the slum areas compared to planned residential areas. Similarly, the severity of disease due to use of mosquito repellent is higher in the slum areas compared to planned residential areas. The planned residential area people are more aware about the negative health effect of using mosquito repellents. The ordered logit estimation result shows that disease awareness of using repellent is higher among educated and planned residential people in comparison with less educated and slum people. Hence, activities under different public health program might be develop to enhance awareness, especially among poor, less educated slum people toward the negativity of using repellents and encourage them towards using alternative means for preventing mosquito.