Utilization of discount vouchers in purchasing insecticide treated nets among women who attended reproductive and child health clinics in Morogoro rural district

Malaria has been the main cause of morbidity and mortality in Tanzania hence ITN intervention has to be considered in reducing the burden of this disease. The discount Voucher Scheme has been operated at a very small scale in Tanzania, thus, there is a need to produce empirical evidence with which to assess the true potential demand of Discount Vouchers. A descriptive cross sectional study was undertaken in Morogoro Rural District during the month of May and June 2005. The main objectives were to determine the extent of utilization of Discount Voucher in purchasing Insecticide treated nets among women who attended Reproductive and Child Health Clinics. A total of 250 women aged 15 years and above were selected using multistage sampling technique. A semi structured questionnaire was used for data collection after having oral informed consent. Among the 177 women who had received discount Vouchers, when asked if they had slept under a net the previous night, 121(68.3%) responded affirmatively. This suggests that there was good utilization of ITN among the women who purchased the ITNs. Overall 77% of women reported that they utilized them to protect themselves and their children from mosquitoes. The main factors that had positively influenced the purchase of ITNs was the awareness of women on the importance of protecting themselves and their families from malaria and having a reliable source of income. The main negative factor was the low purchasing power of most of the families, as shown by the fact that petty business women were more likely to purchase an ITN compared to women having other types of occupations. The results revealed that there was a high demand of ITNs than the vendor could supply. The study also revealed that there were limited vendors and MCH clinic in the neighborhood. The study recommends that more effort should be made to increase awareness of the community to enable more women with their children to purchase and utilize the ITNs by using DV. Finally Discount Voucher Scheme implementers need to provide mobile services to reduce shortage of ITNs in rural areas.