Table 1.

ITN indicators: advantages and limitations

Indicator	Unit of analysis	What it measures	Advantages	Limitations
% HHs owning at least 1 ITN	Household	Measures what proportion of households has 1 (or more) ITNs	Demonstrates the basic ‘reach’ of ITN distribution activities	Does not indicate the extent to which individuals have the opportunity to use an ITN—as 1 ITN is nearly always insufficient to enable ITN use by all household members
% HHs owning at least 1 ITN for 2 people	Household	Measures what proportion of households has enough ITNs to protect all individuals in the household assuming 2 persons use each ITN	Correlates with WHO and mass campaigns goals of providing 1 ITN for every 2 people; easy to communicate with a broader audience	Underestimates coverage by totally ignoring households that have ITNs to cover a significant portion, but not all, of the individuals in the household
% population that used an ITN the night before the survey	People	Measures the level of ITN use of all age groups at the time of the survey	Provides an exact picture of what proportion of the population is individually protected by an ITN the night before the survey	Low ITN use often assumed to be a behavioural problem, but use is highly driven by ITN access, which is not accounted for by this indicator
% population with access to an ITN within the households	People	Provides an estimate of the proportion of the total population that could have slept under an ITN. Assuming two people share one ITN	Accounts for ITNs in all households and precisely counts all individuals that could use an ITN. Can be directly compared with ITN use to identify specific behavioural gaps	Can be challenging to conceptualize