Abstract:
Malaria remains a major health problem in the world, each year there are more than 207 million cases of malaria and killing around 627000 people each year and 90% of the deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa according to 2013 World Malaria Report. In Ethiopia about 52 million people live in malarious areas which covering almost 75% of the land mass. In Oromia region, malaria is one of the health problems ranking the top list of the ten top diseases. Insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) are regarded as one of the most effective strategies to prevent malaria in Africa including Ethiopia. ITNs in an area of intense malaria transmission may be to reduce the overall mosquito population in addition to reducing human-vector contact at the individual level .Widespread use of insecticide-treated nets and other appropriate methods helps to limit human-mosquito contact. The objective of this study is to assess utilization of Insecticide Treated Nets among households with Under five children and identify factors affecting its use in Sibu Sire district. Study period of this research was from December 5 to 20, 2014. Community based cross sectional study design was used. The total of 604 households with Under five children was participated in the study. Multistage sampling technique was carried out to select study population. Primarily all the 22 kebeles were stratified in to 19 rural and 3 urban kebeles. Then, 1 kebele from urban and 5 kebeles from rural were randomly selected by lottery method. From each of selected kebeles 2 villages were randomly drawn using a lottery method to insure logistic feasibility. Inside the village households with Under five children was taken until to reach the sample size. The analysis of this study was done by using SPSS version 20 software packages. The prevalence of the ITNs among HHs with Under five children was 80%. The variables like sex of respondents [AOR=0.323, 95%CI=0.150, 0.695], occupation [AOR=7.010, 95%CI=1.506, 32.639], where mosquitoes found [AOR=0.162, 95%CI=0.065, 0.403, AOR=0.468, 95%CI=0.256, 0.857] and when to use ITNs [AOR=0.042, 95%CI=0.002, 0.955, AOR=0.017, 95CI=0.001, 0.314] were significantly associate with ITNs use. The reasons identified for non-utilization of ITNs during the study were forget to mount net and knowledge gap. Hence the Zone and district health office should focus on educating the respondents and continuous follow up for ITNs proper utilization.
........................................ Thesis available at ACIPH Library