Usage of Insecticide Treated Nets as a Preventive Strategy Against Malaria Spread among Community Dwellers in Owerri West Local Government Area, Imo State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated usage of Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs) as a preventive strategy against malaria spread among community dwellers in Owerri West Local Government Area (LGA), Imo State, Nigeria. Four research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The cross-sectional research design was used for the study. The population for the study comprised all community dwellers in Owerri West LGA, Imo State. The sample size was 400, gotten through stratified and purposive sampling techniques. The instrument used for the study was a self-structured questionnaire called ‘Usage of Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs) as a Preventive Strategy against Malaria Spread Questionnaire’ (UITNPMSQ). The reliability of UITNPMSQ was established using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient, which yielded an index of 0.85. Data collected were analyzed using mean, frequency, and percentage for the research questions and inferential statistics of chi-square was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The results revealed that, community dwellers in Owerri West LGA, Imo State, Nigeria did not use ITNs as a mean score of 1.48 was recorded against the criterion mean of 2.25. The results also showed that, low proportion of the respondents (12%) used ITNs frequently, 24% sometimes used ITNs while 64% never used ITNs. There was no significant difference in the extent of usage of ITNs between male and female community dwellers in Owerri West LGA, Imo State, Nigeria (p= .986 > .05), while there was a significant difference in the usage of ITNs between educated and non-educated (p= .013, < .05.). This study proves that community dwellers in Owerri West LGA did not use ITNs. Based on the findings, the authors recommended that, campaign targeted at increasing awareness on the efficacy and usage of ITNs should be carried out by the government and non- governmental organizations as well as other health related organizations.