Relationship between care-givers' misconceptions and non-use of ITNs by under-five Nigerian children

Malaria Journal

Research

Martin M Meremikwu¹  Samson B Adebayo²  Augustine Ankomah²  Ekundayo D Arogundade²  Jennifer Anyanti²  Olaronke Ladipo²  Ernest Nwokolo² 

[1] Department of Paediatrics, University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria;Society for Family Health, Port Harcourt Crescent, Area 11, Abuja, Nigeria;

关键词: Malaria;    Malaria Control;    Malaria Infection;    Severe Malaria;    Placental Malaria;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1475-2875-10-170

 received in 2011-01-11, accepted in 2011-06-22,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundMalaria has been a major public health problem in Nigeria and many other sub-Saharan African countries. Insecticide-treated nets have shown to be cost-effective in the prevention of malaria, but the number of people that actually use these nets has remained generally low. Studies that explore the determinants of use of ITN are desirable.MethodsStructured questionnaires based on thematic areas were administered by trained interviewers to 7,223 care-givers of under-five children selected from all the six geo-political zones of Nigeria. Bivariate analysis and multinomial logit model were used to identify possible determinants of use of ITN.ResultsBivariate analysis showed that under-five children whose care-givers had some misconceptions about causes and prevention of malaria were significantly less likely to use ITN even though the household may own a net (p < 0.0001). Education and correct knowledge about modes of prevention of malaria, knowing that malaria is dangerous and malaria can kill were also significantly associated with use of ITN (p < 0.0001). Knowledge of symptoms of malaria did not influence use of ITN. Association of non-use of ITN with misconceptions about prevention of malaria persisted with logistic regression (Odds ratio 0.847; 95% CI 0.747 to 0.960).ConclusionsMisconceptions about causes and prevention of malaria by caregivers adversely influence the use ITN by under-five children. Appropriate communication strategies should correct these misconceptions.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Arogundade et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.