Kepha-M/malaria-bednet-clustering-kenya

# Malaria Bed-Net Effectiveness Clustering — Kenya (KMIS 2020) Segmenting malaria-endemic sub-locations in Kenya by bed-net ownership, usage, and transmission-risk patterns, using hierarchical clustering on the 2020 Kenya Malaria Indicator Survey (KMIS). ## Project Summary Insecticide-treated bed nets (ITNs) remain a cornerstone of Kenya's malaria control strategy, but ownership does not always translate into use, and use does not always translate into reduced transmission. Blanket, national-level metrics can mask this variation and lead to inefficient allocation of nets and behavior-change resources. This project clusters ~60–70 KMIS 2020 survey clusters into distinct risk/behavior profiles using three core indicators: - **Bed-net ownership rate** — share of households owning at least one ITN - **Bed-net usage rate** — share of eligible individuals who slept under an ITN the previous night - **Malaria positivity rate** — RDT/microscopy-confirmed malaria prevalence The resulting cluster typology is designed to support targeting decisions by the **National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP)**, **County Health Management Teams**, **KEMRI** researchers, and development partners (**Global Fund**, **PMI/USAID**). ## Key Findings > Fill in with final numbers once the interpretation stage is signed off. - Clusters separate into groups broadly characterized as: high-ownership / high-usage / low-positivity ("on track"), high-ownership / low-usage / variable-positivity ("behavior gap"), and low-ownership / low-usage / higher-positivity ("under-served"). - An expected ownership-to-usage gap is confirmed across nearly all clusters, consistent with known net-utilization drop-off documented nationally. - Coast region clusters show consistently low or zero positivity, in line with expected lower regional transmission intensity, confirmed via grouped-mean comparison against other regions. ## Data Source - **Survey:** Kenya Malaria Indicator Survey (KMIS) 2020 - **Provider: …