Abstract:

Background: Malaria remains a major public health problem in Sierra Leone. One contributory factor to the high malaria burden is the unavailability of Insecticide Treated Nets (ITN). This study assessed ownership and use of ITN by pregnant women.

Methodology: Cross sectional study design and multi-stage cluster sampling were employed to collect data from 333 eligible and consenting pregnant women. An Interviewer-administered, semi-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Analyses was done using SPSS version 21. Mean, median and standard deviation were used to summarize quantitative variables and frequencies and proportions for qualitative variables. Association between demographic and pregnancy variables and ITN use was statistically tested. Level of significance for all tests was at 5%.

Result: The mean age of the surveyed pregnant women was 28.49 years. While only 30.3% of pregnant women owned ITN, 97.2% slept under bed net the night before the survey and, 79.2% slept under bed nets always in the 3 months preceding the survey. The ITN ownership by household was 35.4%. The sources of ITN include street traders (38%), mass campaign (25%), health facilities (18%) and shops (15%). The reasons for not sleeping under ITNs are unavailability (79.7%), heat (25.8%), odour (19%), use of other malaria preventive measures (12.1%), and cost, inconveniences and itching (13.8%). ITN use by pregnant women is statistically associated with their educational status, age and ownership of at least one ITN

Conclusion: Pregnant women should have access to ITN at all times as this may increase ITN use during pregnancy.

Keywords: Insecticide Treated Nets, Pregnant, Women, and Malaria.

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