Abstract

Malaria is endemic in Zambia and is more common among pregnant mothers and under-five-year-old children. Long lasting insecticide treated mosquito nets are effective against malaria among other measures. However, over the years, data has shown low utilisation of insecticide treated mosquito nets among pregnant women and children under-five. This study investigated the utilisation of long lasting insecticide treated mosquito nets among pregnant mothers and their under-five-children in Lusaka urban.  A cross section descriptive study was conducted in Matero, Chainda, Mandevu and Chipata compounds of Lusaka District. A total of 420 pregnant mothers with under-five children were sampled. A semi-structured interview schedule was used to collect data. Data was analysed using SPSS version 22. Logistic regression analysis was done to assess the significance of the association among factors influencing use of long-lasting insecticide treated mosquito nets with the confidence interval of 95%. Almost all (99.5%) of the participants were females. Only 68% of the respondents owned and utilised the long-lasting-insecticide-treated nets. Almost all (98%) of the respondents denied that cultural beliefs cause fever in pregnant women. Health facilities should lobby and distribute long-lasting-insecticide-treated nets in order to scale-up utilization of long lasting insecticide treated mosquito nets. More awareness should be created on the importance of sleeping under long lasting insecticide treated mosquito nets.

Key words: Malaria, Utilisation, long-lasting-insecticide-treated nets, pregnant women and under-five children.