Knowledge and Practices towards the Use of Treated Mosquito Net among Pregnant Mothers attending Antenatal Care at Katakwi Hospital, Katakwi District
Abura Geoffrey1, Mubarak Alhassan2 and Cemeri Barbara3
1,2,3 Department of Nursing, Kampala International University, Uganda
Malaria especially during pregnancy continues to be a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in many tropical regions of the world, despite global efforts to eradicate the disease while the disease is easily preventable, curable, and treatable. To explore the Knowledge and Practices of the treated mosquito net use among pregnant mothers attending Antenatal Care at Katakwi Hospital, Katakwi District. A health facility-based descriptive cross-sectional study was designed among 70 pregnant mothers from the ANC of Katakwi Hospital using a simple random sampling method from ANC. The data was collected by using a pretested interviewer semi-structured questionnaire. Out of 70 respondents, 52(74.3%) had good knowledge 18(25.7%) had poor knowledge about the use of mosquito nets. 55(77.1%) showed good practice whereas 16(22.9%) showed poor practices towards the use of mosquito nets. Several factors were found to be significantly associated with the knowledge score of treated mosquito net uses: respondent’s age (X2=10.075, p-value=0.029*), religious status (X2=6.067, p-value=0.029*), respondent’s age (X2=8.754, p-value=0.033*), respondent’s average monthly income (X2=3.867, p-value=0.049. Conclusion: The present study concludes that the knowledge (74.3%) and practices (77.1%) of pregnant women concerning ITN use were good. The provision of mass education, and health education campaigns should still be highly emphasized especially regarding tucking the mosquito nets when it’s late evening, creating awareness about retreating the mosquito nets, and the duration of the effectiveness of the mosquito net. This will improve the use of ITNs in pregnancy and help to win the war against malaria.
Keywords: Knowledge, practices, treated mosquito net, pregnant mothers, antenatal care
CITE AS: Abura Geoffrey, Mubarak Alhassan and Cemeri Barbara (2024). Knowledge and Practices towards the Use of Treated Mosquito Net among Pregnant Mothers attending Antenatal Care at Katakwi Hospital, Katakwi District. RESEARCH INVENTION JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCES 3(3):1-11.