Linking resident knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding mosquitoes to socioeconomic factors and vector control

Many urban vector mosquitoes breed in water-holding containers on private lands, where public health agencies do not have the personnel, funding, or access to practice larval control. Elimination of standing water (‘source reduction’) by residents is essential for cost-effective management of urban mosquitoes but requires effective public education campaigns to inform and motivate residents. A better understanding of the relationships between household socioeconomic status with knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) towards mosquitoes and their pathogens is needed to better direct education campaigns. We administered KAP questionnaires and entomological surveys to 242 households in six neighborhoods that varied in socioeconomic status in the summer, 2010. Relationships between the demographic background, knowledge, attitudes, and practices of households and mosquito populations were tested using univariate and multivariate logistic and linear models models in a stepwise approach. Fifty-four percent of households surveyed were mosquito-positive. Aedes albopictus (53.5%) and Culex pipiens (39.5%) were the most common mosquito species collected. Knowledge of mosquito-borne disease and mosquito breeding was lower among middle-income households than upper- and lower-income households. Lower-income households showed greater overall motivation to control mosquitoes. We found no relationship of knowledge or motivation with reported source reduction practices or of reported practice with the numbers of water-holding containers. Households reporting source reduction had lower total pupal production and numbers of containers with Cx. pipiens but not Ae. albopictus. More specific education on mosquito ecology may be needed for effective household control of Ae. albopictus, especially in middle-income households where knowledge of mosquitoes is lowest.