Children Who Slept Under an ITN

According to the WHO World Malaria Report (2017), the use of insecticide treated bed nets has been shown to reduce malaria mortality rates by 55% in children aged under 5 years. This indicator therefore measures the proportion of children who spent the previous night in the interviewed households and slept under an insecticide-treated bed net.

Collect the following data by conducting individual interviews with the caregivers of a representative sample of children younger than 5 years:

RECOMMENDED SURVEY QUESTIONS (Q) AND POSSIBLE ANSWERS (A)

Q1: How many children under 5 years slept in your household last night?

A1:

1) ____ children

2) doesn’t know / no response

Q2: During the last night, did any of these children sleep under a mosquito net?

A2: yes / no

(ask the following questions only if the previous answer is YES)

Q3: How many of these children slept under a mosquito net?

A3:

1) ____ children

2) doesn’t know / no response

Q4: Can I please see the mosquito net(s) the children slept under?

A4: mosquito net was shown / mosquito net was not shown

Q5 for enumerator: What type of mosquito net did the children sleep under?

A5:

1) insecticide-treated net [fill in the locally available types and brands]

2) other type of net

3) not possible to determine the type of net

To calculate the indicator’s value, divide the number of children under 5 years who slept under an insecticide-treated net by those who did not. Multiply the result by 100 to convert it to a percentage. Exclude from the analysis all respondents who at any point did not know or who did not show a mosquito net.

Disaggregate the data by the respondent’s location and wealth category.

1) Ensure that the enumerators are very familiar with the locally distributed / sold types of mosquito nets, so that they can recognize them easily. Consider providing them with pictures of various types of nets that they can take with them.

2) Mosquito nets can often be torn, having limited effectiveness. If you are interested in the percentage of children who slept under nets that do not have any holes in them (i.e. are likely to be effective), add an additional question asking the enumerators to inspect and record the condition of the net. In such a case, the indicator could be rephrased to “% of children under 5 who slept under an undamaged, insecticide-treated bed net the previous night”