Factors Influencing Willingness to Pay for Insecticidal Treated Bed Nets Among Rural Households of Bugina District North Wollo Zone, North-East Ethiopia

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Understanding potential demand and willingness to pay for the insecticide treated nets is important for sustainable insecticide-treated bed net intervention. However, there is limited evidence, and there is no study in this malarious area, so the study aimed to assess willingness to pay for insecticide-treated bed net and influencing factors. METHODS: A multi-stage community-based cross-sectional study was conducted by using an interview administered questionnaire with a total sample size of 711H.H from March 01 to 30, 2020. The data were entered into EPI data version 4.6.0 and exported to STATA SE version 14 for further analysis. The mean price of willingness to pay was presented as mean and median. Bivariable and multivariable Tobit economical model was used to identify factors associated with willingness to pay. Regression coefficient (ß), 95% CI, t-value and p-value were used to measure the strength and presence of a statistical association. RESULTS: A total of 683 study participants with a response rate of 96.1% were included in the study. Sixty-four percent of respondents were willing to pay for three types of an insecticide-treated bed net, and the mean price for blue rectangular medium size ITN was 46 (±12.9) birr, for white circular medium size ITN was 44 (±12.3) birr and for blue circular medium size ITN was 43 (±11.8) birr. The factors influencing willingness to pay were sex, educational status, wealth status and knowledge toward malaria and ITN. CONCLUSION: This study revealed that in the Bugina district majority of the households were willing to pay for the three types of ITN with a mean price of 55.6 ETB. Sex, educational status, knowledge and wealth index are factors affecting willingness to pay for ITN; further awareness needs to be created regarding the severity of malaria and the demand of ITN.