Since the global resurgence of interest in malaria control about 20 years ago, insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) have been the most widely distributed intervention against malaria and account for a 68% decline in Plasmodium falciparum infection prevalence in sub-Saharan Africa [1]. Universal coverage as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) is defined as “universal access to, and use of, long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs)” of all people at risk of malaria, and is defined operationally as one net for every two people [2]. Tanzania has a long-standing record in the deployment of mosquito nets as an intervention for malaria control [3–7]. The use of ITNs in Tanzania has been associated with the reduction of malaria morbidity and mortality, particularly in children under the age of five [8, 9].

Mass distribution campaigns are the primary source of LLINs in most malaria endemic countries and aim to ensure equitable distribution across all socio-economic groups [1, 10–12]. Given the increasing distribution of large numbers of mosquito nets in communities, the Roll Back Malaria Monitoring and Evaluation Reference Group (MERG) developed indicators to assess and compare LLIN interventions in countries at risk of malaria [13]. Household surveys are widely used to measure the MERG indicators, which determine achievements of universal coverage of LLINs following mass distributions [13].

Between 2004 and 2014, the Government of Tanzania distributed nets to pregnant women and infants at a subsidised cost during their routine antenatal and immunization clinic visits through the Tanzania National Voucher Scheme (TNVS) [14–16]. Nationwide, children under the age of 5 received nets free of charge through the Under-Five Catch-up Campaign (U5CC) between 2009 and 2010 [17], and a Universal Coverage Campaign (UCC) was implemented in 2010 and 2011 to reach all remaining uncovered sleeping spaces [18]. Another mass universal replacement campaign (URC) was conducted between 2015 and 2017 to achieve universal coverage in most of the country. Since 2013, the School Net Programme (SNP) has been ongoing in the Southern Zone to explore sustainable continuous “Keep Up” mechanisms to distribute nets into the community [19, 20, 21].

In addition, both insecticidal and untreated mosquito nets (UTNs) are available through the private sector at varying costs [22]. A to Z Textile Mills Ltd. holds the biggest market share for mosquito nets in Tanzania, but their commercial market is currently restricted to UTNs (Safinet) and supplies to international funders for mass LLIN campaigns (Olyset and Miranet) within the region and elsewhere (Nick Brown, Business Development Manager, pers. comm.). There are three more local manufacturers of UTNs than LLINs in Tanzania, which increases the accessibility and availability of UTNs in the commercial markets at a cheaper cost [22]. Though not as efficient as LLINs for protection against malaria, UTNs do provide physical protection against mosquitoes if in relatively good condition [8, 23–25].

While many studies focus on evaluating the achievements of the LLIN distributions usually immediately following mass campaigns [12, 26–30], this study provides, (1) data on LLIN coverage at a unique time between mass campaigns, and (2) an account of how households adapt when nets are not freely distributed, including the acquisition of UTNs. Using the MERG indicators, LLIN and UTN ownership, access and use was assessed to investigate the net landscape of Tanzania 2 years since the last mass campaign with particular emphasis on how the population responds to loss of free LLINs and whether this is affected by socio-economic status. The National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) could use these data to predict current LLIN coverage following the URC in 2015–2017 to better assess target areas and populations for continuous net distribution strategies.

A total of 6529 nets were collected from 3398 households from 76 villages across eight districts in Tanzania [40]. Seventy-seven percent of nets were LLINs, 16% UTNs, and 7% had no labels attached (Fig. 2). The predominant net product was Olyset (74.2%). Other LLIN products included PermaNet (1.5%) and BASF (0.9%). Untreated net products included Safinet (13.5%), SupaNet (1.5%) and Health Net Ltd (0.5%). Seventy-three percent of all nets collected were identified by their colour to have come from a government distribution mechanism (TNVS, U5CC or UCC) (Fig. 2). Of the 3986 campaign nets identified, only 1063 could be distinguished by manufacturing date (U5CC: 135, UCC: 928), the rest had lost their manufacturing label. Of the 6529 nets collected, 85% were single size (3 × 6 feet) while 15% were double size (4 × 6 feet) in dimensions. Eighty-five percent of the single size nets were LLINs. Fifty-one percent of the double-sized nets were UTNs, 35% were LLINs and 14% unknown. Ninety-seven percent of nets were square in shape while 3.3% were conical-shaped. Seventy-one percent of the conical-shaped nets were UTNs.

Most of the households in Kinondoni and Iringa (urban districts) ranked among the wealthiest SES quintile while none ranked among the poorest quintile (Table 2). Household ownership of at least one government-distributed LLIN (TNVS, U5CC or UCC) was almost twice as high among the poorest quintile at 90.0% [95% CI 86.2–92.8%] compared to the wealthiest quintile at 47.3% [95% CI 42.1–52.6%]. Thirty-five percent of households owned both an LLIN and a UTN.

Net ownership

Overall, 85.0% [95% CI 82.3–87.4%] of households owned at least one net (any type) while 74.5% [95% CI 71.0–77.7%] and 36.7% [95% CI 32.6–41.0%] of households owned at least one LLIN and at least one UTN, respectively (Fig. 3). The wealthiest quintiles had the highest percentage of household net ownership at 89.3% [95% CI 85.3–92.3%] but the lowest percentage of households owning at least one LLIN at 66.6% [95% CI 59.2–73.2%] (Fig. 3). The poorest quintile had the lowest household ownership of any net at 78.1% [95% CI 70.8–84.0%] while the middle quintile had the highest LLIN ownership at 78.6% [95% CI 72.8–83.5%] (Fig. 3). Ownership of UTNs increased with the increase of wealth quintile.

Socio-economic status was significantly positively associated with ownership of any net (Table 3). For those in the wealthiest quintile, the odds of owning a net was 2.62 times the odds of owning any net for those in the lowest quintile. There was no statistically significant association between SES and LLIN ownership. However, the odds of the middle quintile to own an LLIN was 1.47 times the odds of owning an LLIN for those in the lowest quintile. Socio-economic status was significantly positively associated with ownership of UTNs. The odds of the wealthiest quintile to own a UTN was 6 times the odds of owning an UTN for those in the lowest quintile (Table 3).

Mosquito net indicator	Variable	SES	Unadjusted odds ratio (95% CI)	P value	Adjusted odds ratioa (95% CI)	P value
Household ownership	Any net	Poorest	1	0.013	1	0.005
		Second Poorest	1.38		1.53
		Medium	2.01		2.33
		Wealthier	2.33		2.61
		Wealthiest	1.86		2.62
	LLIN	Poorest	1	0.070	1	0.053
		Second Poorest	1.13		1.25
		Medium	1.29		1.47
		Wealthier	1.15		1.26
		Wealthiest	0.7		0.87
	Untreated net	Poorest	1	0.000	1	0.000
		Second poorest	1.31		1.36
		Medium	2.08		2.18
		Wealthier	3.24		3.35
		Wealthiest	6.19		6.95
Household with enough nets	Any net	Poorest	1	0.000	1	0.001
		Second poorest	1.2		1.22
		Medium	1.76		1.67
		Wealthier	2.46		2.04
		Wealthiest	2.97		2.47
	LLIN	Poorest	1	0.039	1	0.121
		Second poorest	1.18		1.21
		Medium	1.27		1.2
		Wealthier	1.53		1.29
		Wealthiest	1.04		0.92
	Untreated net	Poorest	1	0.000	1	0.002
		Second poorest	0.88		0.81
		Medium	1.31		1.10
		Wealthier	2.30		1.78
		Wealthiest	5.09		3.41
Population access	Any net	Poorest	1	0.005	1	0.005
		Second poorest	1.40		1.53
		Medium	2.06		2.31
		Wealthier	2.58		2.68
		Wealthiest	1.92		2.43
	LLIN	Poorest	1	0.039	1	0.021
		Second poorest	1.15		1.24
		Medium	1.31		1.44
		Wealthier	1.26		1.25
		Wealthiest	0.7		0.77
	Untreated net	Poorest	1	0.000	1	0.000
		Second poorest	1.33		1.35
		Medium	2.15		2.17
		Wealthier	3.51		3.40
		Wealthiest	6.52		6.68
Population net use	Any net	Poorest	1	0.000	1	0.000
		Second poorest	1.23		1.3
		Medium	1.8		1.93
		Wealthier	2.49		2.52
		Wealthiest	2.82		2.92
	LLIN	Poorest	1	0.009	1	0.002
		Second poorest	1.13		1.19
		Medium	1.44		1.51
		Wealthier	1.54		1.56
		Wealthiest	1.18		1.23
	Untreated net	Poorest	1	0.000	1	0.000
		Second poorest	2.05		2.25
		Medium	3.82		4.08
		Wealthier	9.62		8.17
		Wealthiest	23.47		18.89
Use:access ratio	Any net	Poorest	1	0.014	1	0.050
		Second poorest	1.04		1.23
		Medium	1.13		1.28
		Wealthier	1.62		1.77
		Wealthiest	1.85		1.7
	LLIN	Poorest	1	0.771	1	0.899
		Second poorest	0.83		0.94
		Medium	0.88		0.99
		Wealthier	1.01		1.11
		Wealthiest	1.07		0.97
	Untreated net	Poorest	1	0.721	1	0.321
		Second poorest	1.31		3.47
		Medium	1.97		1.25
		Wealthier	2.02		0.69
		Wealthiest	2.37		0.76

See Table 1 for definitions of mosquito net indicators

^aAdjusted for district

District variation of LLIN coverage

Overall, households with enough LLINs for every two of its household members were 23.8% [95% CI 21.2–26.7%], the percentage of the population with access to an LLIN within their household was 49.2% [95% CI 46.3–52.0%], and the percentage of the population that used an LLIN the previous night was 38.2% [95% CI 29.9–35.8%] (Fig. 4). The overall use:access ratio of LLINs was 0.66 and in turn the LLIN use gap was 0.34.

Only three districts, namely Bagamoyo, Kilosa and Musoma had more than 80% of households owning at least one LLIN (Fig. 4). Kinondoni district had the lowest percent of household ownership of LLINs at 62.5% [95% CI 40.5–80.3%] while neighbouring Bagamoyo had the highest at 83.3% [95% CI 74.3–89.6%]. Geita had the lowest percentage of households with enough LLINs at 16.0% [95% CI 12.2–20.8%] and low population access at 45.6% [95% CI 40.7–50.5%]. Mbozi and Kahama districts, who have the lowest household ownership of LLINs, had the lowest LLIN use:access ratios of 0.39 and 0.52 respectively while Musoma district had the highest at 0.80 (Fig. 4).

Overall, the percentage of households with one LLIN for every two people was below 30%. This finding indicates that 2 years after the mass distribution, many households were without enough nets to cover their population, leading to low population access to LLINs (below 50%). This emphasizes that the URC was long overdue by 2013. Recent national surveys suggest that malaria prevalence in Tanzania may have increased from 9.2% in 2011–2012 to 14.4% in 2015–2016 [33, 41], which could be attributed to poor LLIN indicators although the difference in malaria prevalence could also be attributed to varying transmission intensity between the survey years [42, 43]. The WHO currently recommends mass distribution campaigns to be conducted at 3-year intervals unless there is reliable data to justify longer replacement intervals or as per locally available investments to accommodate population growth and intermittent net loss [2]. This study emphasizes the need for continuous malaria intervention especially during the gap years between mass distributions. Geita district, for example, recorded the highest malaria prevalence (38.4%) in 2015–2016 [41] and lowest percentage of households with enough LLINs (16%) in this study. It is currently profiting from the expansion of SNP to the Western and Lake Zone since late 2016 to maintain high net coverage [44].

Generally, household ownership of any type of net was highest among the wealthiest quintile (89.3%). Sixty percent of the wealthiest households owned at least one UTN, most probably acquired from the commercial market. This indicates willingness to purchase affordable nets for continued protection against mosquitoes in the absence of free net distributions. A literature review by Koenker and Yukich [45] found that households tend to use the nets available to them irrespective of net characteristics (colour, shape, size or texture), probably because they are restricted to what is distributed or what they have access to. Purchasing their own nets, however, allowed households to exercise choice regarding treatment status, material and size of net. This assessment found that 51% of the double-size nets and 71% of the conical-shaped nets were UTNs.

The inequalities observed across socio-economic quintiles in the acquisition of UTNs was similar to what was observed in Nigeria [46]. The wealthiest households, situated in the urban districts of Kinondoni and Iringa, increased their household access to nets through the commercial markets. Access to a variety of products and affordable prices have been shown to have a significant association with willingness to purchase mosquito nets in Ethiopia [47]. Remotely-located districts are often disadvantaged by increased costs to cover transport charges [16]. This study found that household ownership of at least one government-distributed LLIN (TNVS, U5CC, UCC), distributed 2–4 years prior to this study, was almost twice as high in the poorest quintile (90%) compared to the wealthiest quintile (47%). This indicates that households belonging to the lower socio-economic quintiles relied mostly on campaign LLINs and kept them for longer. Hence, there is a need to identify pro-poor methods of targeting net distributions such as the SNP to lower socio-economic quintiles to ensure households have enough nets to cover all members.

It will be important to identify locally and culturally appropriate avenues for behavioural-change campaigns (BCC) to motivate increased purchasing of LLINs while strengthening the local production of LLINs through private–public partnerships [22, 48, 49]. It is also useful to explore factors associated with net retention and how those can be incorporated in the BCC in districts with high net loss. Household net ownership of at least one LLIN in Mbozi district dropped by 28.8% from what was reported by the THMIS 2011–2012, 10 months prior to this study [33].

Population net use of any net type and LLINs was low across all socio-economic quintiles. Any net use was highest among the wealthiest quintile but was still below 60%. Overall, LLIN use:access ratio of 0.66 indicated that not all of the nets collected from households were used [29]. Previous studies have identified reasons for net non-use include lack of access to nets [50, 51] or discomfort, low mosquito density, or sleeping elsewhere [52, 53]. Across districts, the LLIN use:access ratio was lowest in Mbozi at 0.39 (mean number of people per net was 0.7). Mbozi district is in the Southern Highlands, a hypo-endemic zone (with less than 3 months of transmission a year, < 10% malaria prevalence in children 2–9 years old) [54, 55]. Thus, people might not see malaria as a public health threat, explaining the low use rate. Further studies need to be conducted to understand the barriers to net use in specific geographical areas, especially following the informative “Hang Up” campaign by the Tanzania Red Cross Society after the UCC [56].

This study was unable to match net use with user characteristics such as age and gender from the household member roster. Therefore, it was not possible to analyse the person-type most and least likely to sleep underneath a net, to understand those most likely to remain uncovered that ought to be targeted in future net distributions [57–59]. The uneven distribution of SES quintiles observed after PCA analysis where most of the households in Kinondoni and Iringa (urban districts) ranked among the wealthiest while no household ranked among the poorest (Table 2), is an important limitation of this study. However, statistical analysis controlled for the variation observed between districts. Decision-makers should adjust by district SES-focused interventions and consult with the Tanzania Social Action Fund on the modalities of pro-poor focused interventions [60].

In 2013, 2 years after the last mass campaign and 2 years before the URC, the percentage of households or populations with access to LLINs, assuming each LLIN is used by two people, was low (< 30 and < 50%, respectively). These findings indicate that the average rate at which households in Tanzania lose their nets is higher than the rate at which they acquire new nets. There is a need for continuous distribution of LLINs, especially during gap years between mass distributions. The NMCP is currently implementing continuous “Keep Up” strategies delivering LLINs free of charge through the expanding SNP, and through routine health care to pregnant women at their first antenatal clinic (ANC) and at an infant’s first vaccination clinic. Household ownership of any type of net was highest among the wealthier quintile (89.3%), who topped up their ownership with UTNs. Efforts to make LLINs available through commercial markets should be promoted, so that those who can buy nets from the market purchase LLINs rather than UTNs. Targeted BCC is crucial to motivate net use among those with access to nets within their households. Further investigation is recommended to understand barriers to net use and what can be done to ensure year-round net use.