Household characteristics as determinants of ownership of mosquito nets in urban households in Nigeria

Abstract

Malaria accounts for more than 435,000 deaths yearly. The mosquito net is a proven effective method for malaria prevention. Statistics from Nigeria shows that 55% of households in Nigeria possess at least one mosquito net for sleeping. Among these, only 48% of these households are in urban areas. Reports suggest that these figures might not be enough to contain and eventually eliminate malaria in Nigeria. Few studies have explored the relationship between household characteristics and ownership of mosquito nets especially in urban areas of Nigeria. Therefore, this study aims to explore the relationship between household characteristics and ownership of mosquito nets using the household recode dataset of the 2013 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (n = 16,540). The analysis was conducted using Stata 14 analysis software. The chi-square statistics and binary logistic regression were employed to examine the association and determine the extent of relationships between variables respectively. Results showed that female headed households (OR = 0.87 CI: 0.80–0.95); households with family size ≥10 members (OR = 1.42 CI: 1.10–1.75); households with 6–10 rooms (OR = 1.35 CI: 1.00–1.83); households with surroundings sprayed in the last 12 months (OR = 2.47 CI: 1.77–3.46) were found to be significantly associated with ownership of mosquito nets in urban households of Nigeria. The study concludes that socio-demographic factors influence ownership of mosquito nets in Nigeria. Therefore, Intensified efforts in the form of education on the importance of ownership and usage of mosquito nets, equitable distribution campaigns addressing the rural-urban divide is essential to improve ownership and usage of mosquito nets, therefore, contributing to efforts towards achieving the two critical 2020 milestones of the WHO Global Technical Strategy for Malaria 2016–2030: reducing case incidence and death rates by at least 40% from 2015 levels.