Health innovations and peasant adoption factors influencing peasants' acceptance and adoption of new health practices: a case study of Kapolo, Kilombero district in Morogoro region

By the use of the anthropological approach of contextualization and the adoption of innovation's paradigm, factors which influence adoption and non¬adoption of insecticide impregnated bednets (IBN) were investigated from four levels of the program and then put into context. These levels were the community, the project, the innovation and surrounding politics. The study concluded that the community's localness, the role of the health provider and the innovation's specific attributes are important problem areas to reckon with before a disease control program starts and when it continues. This study sought to identify factors influencing the adoption and non-adoption of insecticide impregnated bednets as a malaria prevention tool for under-fives. Adoption and non-adoption were found to be influenced by the household situation, the nature of the health innovation, the program's implementation strategies and surrounding politics. Adopters were found to be those with under fives, a monogamous marriage, a nucleus family or with other relatives and members of the family confined under one roof. Poor program implementation strategies have also contributed to the slackness of the people to adopt the health innovation, but the failure of the people to perceive the distinctness of IBNs has tended to encourage people to use untreated nets as an alternative.