Prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections and associated factors among street children in Jimma town; south West Ethiopia in 2019: a cross sectional study

Sabit Zenu,Kifle Woldemichael,Eshetu Alemayehu

doi:10.1186/s12889-019-8083-4

Abstract

BackgroundStreet child is any child whose age is less than 18 years for whom the street has become his or her habitual abode and/or source of livelihood, is inadequately protected, supervised or directed by responsible adults. In Ethiopia the health problems of street children are given poor attention in research. This problem is pronounced when it comes to intestinal parasitic infections, making it difficult to design appropriate interventions targeting this segment of population. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections and associated factors among street children in Jimma town in the year 2019.MethodsCommunity based cross sectional study was employed. Complete enumeration was used to include 312 street children. Pretested questionnaire was used to collect the data. Data was entered to Epidata version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 20. Stool samples were examined by wet mount and formalin ether concentration techniques. Bivariable and multivariable logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with intestinal parasitic infection. Significance of association was decided by using the 95% confidence interval of AOR and P-value of ≤0.05 in the multivariable model.ResultA total of 312 children of the street were involved in the study making the response rate 96.2%. The prevalence of intestinal parasitic infection was 66.7%. Untrimmed finger nails AOR = 2.03;95%CI (1.02–4.06), eating street food AOR = 2.24;95% CI (1.04–5.02), practice of swimming in unprotected water bodies AOR = 2.5; 95% CI (1.24–5.04), not wearing shoes at the time of data collection AOR = 3.8;95% CI (1.8–8.2) and lacking knowledge of way of transmission of intestinal parasites AOR = 2.5; 95% CI (1.25–5.0) were significantly associated with parasitic infections.ConclusionsThe prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections among street children in the study area was high and require integrated interventions to avert the problem. Several factors were also found to be associated with intestinal parasitic infections. Measures has to be taken to curb the problem by including them in mass drug administration and targeted health education towards identified factors.

Highlights

Street child is any child whose age is less than 18 years for whom the street has become his or her habitual abode and/or source of livelihood, is inadequately protected, supervised or directed by responsible adults
Several factors were found to be associated with intestinal parasitic infections
Measures has to be taken to curb the problem by including them in mass drug administration and targeted health education towards identified factors

Summary

Introduction

Street child is any child whose age is less than 18 years for whom the street has become his or her habitual abode and/or source of livelihood, is inadequately protected, supervised or directed by responsible adults. Intestinal parasitosis refers to a group of diseases caused by one or more species of protozoa, cestodes, trematodes and nematodes These parasites are responsible for the major share of morbidity and mortality in communities where there is over-crowding, poor environmental sanitation and personal hygienic practices, which make them a great concern for the developing countries. The eggs of certain intestinal worms were recovered from mummified feces of humans dating back thousands of years [3] These days intestinal parasites, mostly of soil transmitted helminthiasis, affect nearly a third of global population and severely affects underprivileged populations of developing countries where poverty, undernutrition, inadequate sanitation and lack of clean drinking water prevails [1, 4]. In 2010, an estimated 438.9 million people were infected with Hookworms, 819.0 million with Ascaris lumbricoides, 464.6 million with Trichuris trichuria and these parasites inflicted nearly 5 million years lived with disability in the world [5]

Objectives

Methods

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion