| dc.description.abstract | Malaria is a global disease. The World Health Organization (WHO) latest estimates indicate that
there has been a reduction in malaria mortality rates by 42% globally and 49% in the WHO
Africa region between the year 2000 and 2012. The substantial reduction has been as a result of
major scale-up of vector control interventions, diagnostic testing, and treatment with
Artemisinin-Based Combination Therapies (ACTs). Most notably is the use of bed nets as a
control recommendation against malaria. In Kenya, 25 million people out of a population of 34
million are at risk of malaria. The current bed net ownership of 0.8 per household in Kenya is
below the universal access of 2 bed nets per household. This study therefore sought to investigate
the determinants of bed-net use for malaria prevention in children under five years. These
included household characteristics, level of education, and income of the caregivers, caregiver's
perception and social support network. The study reviewed existing literature on bed net use
using the socio-ecological model and identified a knowledge gap which was addressed through a
cross-sectional household survey; targeting caregivers of children under five years. Descriptive
research design and survey was used to collect the required information using an intervieweradministered
questionnaire; which was piloted and pretested after which it was administered to
all participants on consenting to be part of the research. Krejcie and Morgan’s table was used to
get sample size of 368 households from the four randomly selected clusters (sub-locations). The
findings and results of the study were presented in order of the research objectives. The findings
were presented in frequencies and percentages. It was found out that 49% of the households had
three children under the age of five years; 54% of the respondents had completed secondary
education; 82% of the respondents owned a bed net even though their monthly income was less
than sh5,000; 64% of the respondents who discussed the use of bed nets with their partners
largely agreed that they are key to preventing malaria transmission; caregivers’ perception lean
more towards believing that malaria is caused by other means than from mosquito bites. In
summary, the study found out that that majority of the respondents 137 (43%) believe that
caregivers’ perceptions are key to bed net use, followed by social support 65 (20%) and then
household characteristics 41 (13%). The last two factors were the caregivers’ level of education
and income 38 and 40 respectively; tying at 12%. Of the five objectives of the study four were
found to have a significant influence on the use of bed nets namely: household characteristics,
level of education, caregiver's perception and social support network. The level of education was
found not to have any significant influence on the use of bed nets. It is therefore recommended
that bed nets be distributed to the entire population to optimize usage; other control vectors like
indoor residual spraying should be used to manage the mosquito population and members of the
community need to be sensitized on malaria transmission. | en_US |
