Insecticide - treated bednet ownership and utilization in Rivers State, Nigeria before a state-wide net distribution...

Malaria presents a huge health and economic burden to families living in malaria endemic areas. The use of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) is one of the global strategies in decreasing the malaria burden on vulnerable populations. The use of ITNs reduces clinical malaria by over 50% and all cause mortality in children by 15-30% when the overall population coverage is >70%. This study was aimed at establishing the level of household insecticide -treated bednet ownership and utilization in Rivers State, Nigeria before a statewide scale -up distribution campaign.

A descriptive, cross - sectional study was carried out in the Rivers State in November 2008 among household heads or their proxies to serve as a pre -intervention baseline for the scale -up distribution of insecticide treated bednets in the state. The households were selected by a multi -staged sampling technique: first stage being the selection of Local Government Areas (LGAs) from Senatorial districts, second stage the selection of communities from LGAs and final stage the selection of households. Data were collected using a questionnaire adapted from the WHO/FMoH and analyzed using the Epi -Info version 6.04d statistical software package. Hypothesis tests were conducted to compare summary statistics at 95% significance level.

A total of 811 household heads or their proxies were interviewed. Their age ranged between 20 and 70 yr, with a mean of 47.96 ± 4.39 yr. The study showed that although 552 (68.1%) of the households owned bednets, only 245 (30.2%, 95% CI=27.1-33.5) of them owned long -lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs). Similarly, only 37.2% of those who owned ITNs slept under them the night preceding the survey.

Household ITN ownership and utilization were low in the state. Incorporating behavour change communication package as part of the ITN distribution intervention is advocated to increase ITNs utilization in the state.