15 Mar Social factors determining the utilization of impregnated mosquito net for Malaria prevention in Burundi. A mixed method exploratory study
P. Niyongabo, P. Bizimana, Y. Mbanye, D. Nizigiyimana.
10th European Congress of Tropical Medicine – Antwerp-Belgium, October 2017
6th East African Health Research Scientific Conference Bujumbura -BURUNDI, March 2017
Background.
Since the Abuja summit in 2000, where heads of states took the commitment to roll back Malaria, efforts were made in Africa to enhance Malaria prevention. At the core of all strategies for prevention, lies the use of impregnated mosquitonets. In Burundi, although the use of mosquitonets was adopted as the key national strategy for Malaria prevention, little is known in regard with factors favoring or hindering its use A study was conducted in five provinces of Burundi in 2013 with the aim of identifying factors in relation with the utilization of mosquitonets.
Method
The study was cross sectional and descriptive. It used a mixed method approach with a questionnaire made of closed and open-ended questions. Data was collected from a convenience sample of 2520 households. Bivariate and multivariate analysis facilitated by SPSS software was performed. Constant comparison technique was used for content analysis of the qualitative data.
Results
Only 60% of the study participants declared to have used a mosquito-net the night before the survey. Comfort on sleep and protection against Malaria were reason to use mosquito-nets. The old age, the single marital status; being uneducated, large size household, living in rural area; the perceived high cost of the mosquitonet, living in a traditional house and the unavailability of mosquito-nets in the community were found as hindering the use of mosquito-nets. Findings on factors favoring the use of mosquito-nets in Burundi were also reported by authors from other countries.
Conclusion
The study has unveiled the need to integrate the mosquito-net use promotion in the global strategy for community development as socioeconomic factors were unveiled as hampering the use of mosquito-nets at community level.
Recommendations
Burundi should find strategies to build strong public-private partnership to define social marketing strategy that can make mosquito-nets available at private market.