| dc.description.abstract | Use of insecticide-treated nets (lTNs) continues to offer potential strategy for malaria prevention
in endemic areas. However their effectiveness, sustainability and massive scale up remains a
challenge in malaria control due to socio- cultural, education, economic and awareness of the
local community which are indispensable during design and implementation stages. A
descriptive household survey was conducted in Kombewa Division in which 392 households
were sampled randomly to represent socio-economic and geographical diversity. Quantitative
and qualitative information ofthe respondents were collected by use of structured questionnaires.
Questions were precoded and entered in SPSS where data analysis was done. Descriptive
statistics and co-relational analysis were done to determine the relationship between independent
variables and dependant variables. The study findings were that 73.2% owned bed nets and had
suffered from malaria; however, 43.3% did not use the bed nets regularly. The study highlighted
potential social-cultural, education, economic and lack of awareness to be significant for
inappropriate use of bed nets. In conclusion, education, socio-cultural, lack of awareness and
economic factors are key to inappropriate bed net use. For effective and sustainable
implementation of bed nets in Kombewa Division, the study recommended that the government
should strategize and improve on education and economic factors in the region to reduce malaria
cases and hence death. The two will lead to improved level of awareness and eradicate sociocultural
factors. The study also recommended that further research should be done in detail on
larger and different communities in malaria endemic areas which may prompt other findings that
might be useful in malaria prevention. | en_US |
