Awareness and the use of Insecticide Treated Net (ITN) among pregnant women attending ante-natal at Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto

Abstract

Malaria remains a major public health problem, causing significant maternal and child morbidity and mortality annually in sub-Saharan Africa. The use of insecticide treated bed nets (ITN) is one of WHO recommended multipronged approach to combating malaria, but public awareness of the importance of this method vary from community to community. This study was therefore undertaken with the aim of assessing the current knowledge and use of ITN among pregnant women attending antenatal clinic at the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto. Methodology used was a descriptive crosssectional study of randomly selected 111 pregnant women attending the ANC. A set of structured interviewer administered questionnaire was also used to extract information from the respondents. The result indicates that 101 (91%) of the respondents
had formal education and had heard of ITN, mainly through hospital sources (56.4%, x=57, n=101). However, only 59 (53.2%) of them own a net, supplied by government (21 or 35.6%) or purchased (32 or 54.2%) by the individual. 25 (42.4%) of the respondents used the net everyday but 31(52.5%, n=59) of them claimed to have used it the previous night. It was concluded from this study that although the knowledge of ITN was high (91%) amongANC attending women in study area, this did not
(p>0.05) translate to ownership (53.2%) which in-turn did not (p>0.05) mean usage of net. There was a need to create more awareness of the anti-malarial significance of the ITN, through intensive health education in this and other such areas with endemic drug resistant malaria and insufficient health infrastructure, for the achievement of the objectives of theWHOGlobal Malaria Programme (GMP) and the United Nation Millenium Development Goal.