Use of Mosquito Nets by Children

Percentage of children under age 5 who slept the night before the survey under a mosquito net, under an insecticide treated net (ITN), and among children under age 5 in households with at least one ITN, the percentage who slept under an ITN the night before the survey

Definition

1)      Percentage of children under age 5 who slept the night before the survey under a mosquito net (treated or untreated).

2)      Percentage of children under age 5 who slept the night before the survey under an insecticide treated net (ITN).

3)      Among children under age 5 in households with at least one ITN, the percentage who slept under an ITN the night before the survey.

Coverage:

Population base: Children under age 5 who slept in the household the night before the survey (PR file, HR file)

Time period: The night before the survey

Numerators:

1)      Number of de facto children under age 5 who reported sleeping under any mosquito net the night before the survey (hv103 = 1 & hml16 in 0:4 & hml12 in 1:3)

2)      Number of de facto children under age 5 who reported sleeping under an ITN the night before the survey (hv103 = 1 & hml16 in 0:4 & hml12 in 1:2)

3)      Number of de facto children under age 5 in households with at least one ITN who reported sleeping under an ITN the night before the survey (hv103 = 1 & hml16 in 0:4 & hml12 in 1:2 & any of hml10_1 – hml10_7 = 1) > 0)

Denominators:

a)       Number of children under age 5 in the de facto household population (hv103 = 1 & hml16 in 0:4)

b)      Number of children under age 5 in the de facto household population (hv103 = 1 & hml16 in 0:4)

c)       Number of children under age 5 in the de facto household population in households owning at least one ITN (hv103 = 1 & hml16 in 0:4 & sum of (any hml10_1 – hml10_7 = 1) > 0)

Variables: HR file, PR file.

Calculation

Indicator 3 uses the net roster from the HR file to produce summary variables applied to the household members. First merge hml10_1 – hml10_7 from the HR file to the PR file using hhid as the variable for matching before calculating the indicator (see Matching and Merging Datasets in Chapter 1).

Numerator divided by denominator, multiplied by 100.

Handling of Missing Values

Households with missing information on ownership of nets are considered not to own nets. Nets with missing information on type are considered not to be ITNs.

Notes and Considerations

May be biased by the seasonality of the survey data collection. Some surveys collect information on more than 7 nets. Please check variable hml10_#.

Changes over Time

An insecticide-treated net (ITN) is a factory-treated net that does not require any further treatment. Prior to 2018, this was known as a long-lasting insecticidal net (LLIN). See Changes over Time for this chapter.

References

Boulay, M., M. Lynch, and H. Koenker. 2014. "Comparing two approaches for estimating the causal effect of behaviour-change communication messages promoting insecticide-treated bed nets: an analysis of the 2010 Zambia malaria indicator survey." Malaria journal 13(1): 342. https://malariajournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1475-2875-13-342

Resources

DHS-8 Tabulation plan: Table 12.6

API Indicator IDs:

ML_NETC_C_ANY, ML_NETC_C_ITN, ML_NETC_C_LLN, ML_NETC_C_IT1

(API link, STATcompiler link)

Household Survey Indicators for Malaria Control Indicator 5: Proportion of children under five years old who slept under an ITN the previous night

MICS6 Indicator TC.23: Children under age 5 who slept under an ITN