Publications

Malaria is a life-taking parasitic infection transmitted by an infected female anopheles mosquito. Pregnancy-associatedmalaria infection has deleterious effects on maternal, fetal, and infant health. Despite the fact that insecticide-treatedmosquito nets (ITNs) have been widely made accessible to the population, especially in rural area health centers wherefree ITNs are distributed to mothers attending antenatal care, malaria in Uganda continues to be a major cause ofmorbidity and mortality in pregnancy especially in the third trimester. This study seeks to find out the factorsinfluencing the utilization of insecticide-treated mosquito nets among women in the third trimester of pregnancy atKiryandongo Hospital, Kiryandongo District. This study was cross-sectional. A total of 221 women in their thirdtrimester of pregnancy seeking medical care at Kiryandongo General Hospital were sampled. From the result, theownership (72%) and use (sleeping under)-43.5% of insecticide mosquito nets among women in their third trimesterof pregnancy at Kiryandongo Hospital was higher than that of other target groups. The study revealed that sociodemographicfactors including occupational status, educational level, income level, distance to the ANC unit, andprevious history of malaria cases were associated with higher ownership and use of ITNs. In the study, we may alsoconclude that knowledge of the use of ITNs including knowing the importance of ITNs in preventing bites frominfected mosquitos, and when to have the mosquito nets tucked in under the bed was associated with higher usage ofITNs among the respondents. The source of mosquito nets also mattered in the ownership and use of the mosquitonets