Source reduction behavior as an independent measurement of the impact of a public health education campaign in an integrated vector management program for the Asian tiger mosquito

Abstract

The goal of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a public health educational campaign to reduce backyard mosquito-larval habitats. Three communities each, within two New Jersey counties, were randomly selected to receive: (1) both education and mosquito control, (2) education only, and (3) no education or mosquito control. Four separate educational events included a 5-day elementary school curriculum in the spring, and three door to door distributions of educational brochures. Before and after each educational event, the numbers of mosquito-larval container habitats were counted in 50 randomly selected homes per study area. Container surveys allowed us to measure source reduction behavior. Although we saw reductions in container habitats in sites receiving education, they were not significantly different from the control. Our results suggest that traditional passive means of public education, which were often considered the gold standard for mosquito control programs, are not sufficient to motivate residents to reduce backyard mosquito-larval habitats.

Keywords: Aedes albopictus; Asian tiger mosquito; public health education; source reduction.

Figure 1.

Change in the number of containers found in 2009, by container type. Disposable containers are defined as those that no longer serve a purpose and/or are unwanted by the homeowner. Moveable containers are defined as being able to be moved by a 5-year old child. Differences in containers are between the first (April) and last (September) container surveys. Data is represented as mean number of containers per 50 homes ± the standard error.

Figure 2.

Monthly mean number of containers per home found in (a) Mercer and (b) Monmouth counties, 2009. For each county, the full intervention site is represented by a solid line. The education only sites are represented by long dashes, and the control sites (no intervention) are represented by short dashes.

Figure 3.

Spatial analysis of sites before and after educational interventions. Maps indicate the number of containers per home. For each county and site, the map on the left indicates survey results done before any intervention (April). The maps on the left indicate the survey results at the end of the season (September).