ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Modern medicine tends to interpret health in terms of medical interventions and to overemphasize the importance of medical technology. It is important to promote the concept of health as the result of the interaction of human beings and their total environment. METHODS: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study. A cluster sampling technique was used to select the participants into the study. The study was carried out between January 2012 and February 2012. One participant per household was selected into the study. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect relevant information which was collated and analyzed using SPSS 15 statistical software. RESULTS: A total of 400 households were recruited into the study. The prevalence of insecticide spray utilization in the last 6months was 18.5%. Source of information on the use of insecticides included the radio/TV 174 (43.5%), Relatives 78 (19.5%), Health workers 54 (13.5%), friends 68 (17.0%) and others 26 (6.5%). Reasons for not using insecticides included being expensive (cost) 94 (23.5%), fear of side effect 16 (4.0%), Inconvenience 38 (9.5%) and un-availability 74 (18.5%). Predictors of utilization of insecticide spray were young age (< 30 yrs) of heads of household (OR = 5.10, CI = 1.06-21.7), tertiary education (OR = 9.14 CI = 1.13-53.08), Nuclear family structure (OR = 2.45 CI = 1.13-3.74) and availability of insecticide spray CONCLUSION: The study shows that households with heads that are young and educated are more likely use insecticide spray. The study indicates that programs that will be geared towards increasing the knowledge and awareness of indoor insecticide spray in the prevention of Malaria should be introduced at the community level.
