Utilization of Long Lasting Insecticidal Nets Among Household in Malarious Areas of Raya Alamata District, Tigray, Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Malaria in Ethiopia is one of the most important public health problems, with more than three-quarters of the landmass of the country and an estimated 68% of the total population is considered at risk of malaria infections. In the fight against this deadly disease, the country has deployed a massive amount of long lasting Insecticidal treated nets. Though this tremendous effort is outstanding, the distribution alone does not ensure the protection of the people from malaria. Thus, this study tried to assess the utilization of long lasting insecticidal nets and its associated factors among household in malarious areas of Raya Alamata District, Tigray, Ethiopia. Methods: Community based cross sectional study was used among 649 households from April to May, 2013. All households in malarious villages in Raya Alamata district with long lasting Insecticidal nets in their home were used and multistage sampling technique was used to select the study subjects. For day time face to face interview, structured questionnaire was used. Additionally, an observation checklist was used for early morning survey of the actual utilization. Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression analysis were performed. Results: Among all households 445(68.6%) of them were utilize the long lasting Insecticidal treated nets. The proportion of under 5 children and pregnant women who slept under the net during early morning survey was 71.64 % and 69% respectively. The number of net in the households [AOR (95% CI) = 0.085 (0.26-0.281)], household’s marital status [AOR (95% CI) = 0.431 (0.186-0.997)] and occupation of the household head [AOR (95% CI) = 0.297 (0.113-0.781)] were the significant predicators for utilization of long lasting Insecticidal treated nets. Conclusions: Utilization of long lasting insecticidal nets in this study is low and there is a considerable discrepancy between the distribution and utilization of the net. Availability of number of nets among the households, occupational status the head of households and marital status of the household are the predictor variables for household’s utilization of the net.