No abstract

Background: Drawing on the theory of the health belief model, this study examined the interplay of insecticide mosquito nets, malaria-knowledge, household income, and malaria. The study premised on the notion that insecticide mosquito nets proposed to be positively related to malaria, and knowledge was proposed to mediate the relationship between insecticide mosquito nets and malaria. Furthermore, household-income was anticipated to have a moderating effect on the direct and indirect relationships (through malaria knowledge) between insecticide mosquito nets and malaria. Methods: The hypothesized relationships were examined using the panel data collected from 10 regions of Ethiopia during 2011 – 2015. Structural equation modeling and random effect model used to test the articulated hypothesis. Statistical analyses were performed using Stata version 13.0. Results: The results were consistent with our proposed hypotheses, showing a significant and positive relationship between the research variables. Accordingly, our estimate suggests that malaria knowledge contributed to improving insecticide mosquito nets and malaria disease relationships. The result revealed a significant and positive effect (β = 0.47, p = 0.003) of the indirect effect where the direct effect coefficient is also positive (β = 0.28, p = 0.001). The study also reported a positive impact of household-income in strengthening the relationship between insecticide mosquito nets and malaria via knowledge with considerable value (β = 0.13, p = 0.000). Conclusion: The findings are potentially useful for the health sector to assure the success regarding infectious disease prevention and control, particularly malaria, explaining how such factors contribute to the relationship.