Providing free, rather than subsidized or full priced, insecticide-treated bed nets probably helps to increase ownership but makes little difference to use.
Malaria is a life-threatening disease. Forty percent of the world’s population live in areas affected areas, mostly in the poorest countries.
Infection is caused when a person is bitten by a mosquito carrying the malaria parasite and symptoms include chills, fever, vomiting, diarrhea, and jaundice.
The prevention of malaria was a core part of the 6th Millennium Development Goal to “combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases”. Evidence-based decisions are vital for policy makers and practitioners in their efforts to roll back the disease.
This Campbell and Cochrane review identified 10 studies conducted in Africa and India, all in malaria-endemic areas. In five of these studies, participants were either given free ITNs or could buy them at a subsidized price. The other five studies examined the effects of education in ITN usage, for instance through visits at home or via information given on radios or television.
The study found that:
- Providing free insecticide-treated bednets probably increases the number of people who own bednets compared to having to buy at full market price, or purchasing a bednet using a loan. But It probably leads to little or no difference in the use of bednets by those who own them.
- Providing education about the appropriate use of insecticide-treated bednets may increase the number of adults and children under five using bednets
- Providing incentives to encourage use of insecticide-treated bednets probably leads to little or no difference in ownership or use of bednets compared to those who did not receive an incentive.