Abstract
Intestinal parasitic infections (IPIs) have been major public health burdens in low-income countries like Ethiopia. Studies in different areas of Ethiopia have shown a high prevalence of IPIs in poor families. A similar study has not been conducted in Sasiga District given that the area is possibly at high-risk of IPIs due to the prevailing risk factors. This study is aimed at assessing the prevalence of IPIs and associated risk factors among schoolchildren in Sasiga District, southwest Ethiopia. A school-based cross-sectional study was conducted from December 2018 to March 2019 to estimate the prevalence of IPIs and associated risk factors among the study participants. A total of 383 children were selected using resident-type and grade-level stratified systematic random sampling technique. Stool samples were examined microscopically using direct wet mount and formal-ether concentration techniques. A structured questionnaire was used to get information on the associated risk factors. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20 and p value of ≤0.05 was taken as statistically significant. The overall prevalence of IPIs among the children was 62.4% (239/383). Single, double, and triple infections were 49.9%, 10.7%, and 1.83%, respectively. Residence, family income, place of defecation, source of drinking water, shoe-wearing habit, handwashing habit after toilet use, ways of waste disposal, and cleanliness of fingernail were the most important predictors of IPIs (p < 0.05). Ascaris lumbricoides (22.7% (87/383)) and hookworms (20.6% (79/383)) were the most prevalent parasites, followed by Entamoeba histolytica (8.1%), Trichuris trichiura (7.6%), Giardia intestinalis (6.5%), Hymenolepis nana (5.7%), and Schistosoma mansoni (4.4%), in that order. Sasiga District primary schoolchildren are likely at a high burden of IPIs. Intensive health education on personal hygiene and environmental sanitation is needed.
Highlights
Intestinal parasitic infections (IPIs) have been a big concern for low-income countries as they are the major cause of high morbidity and mortality
A school-based crosssectional study was conducted from December 2018 to March 2019 to determine the prevalence of IPIs and the associated risk factors among the first-cycle primary schoolchildren in Sasiga District, southwest Ethiopia
From 383 study participants, about half were urban dwellers; female participants were slightly greater (51.2%) than males (48.8%); most were from farmer father (87%) and housewife mother (91%), and most were from families who earned Birr 800-2,000 monthly (Table 1)
Summary
Intestinal parasitic infections (IPIs) have been a big concern for low-income countries as they are the major cause of high morbidity and mortality. Most infectious diseases caused by members of the intestinal parasites (protozoan and helminths) have been considered as Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) [1,2,3,4] and are affecting a large section of poor communities. Regardless of huge budget mobilization on health improvement following SDG and significant improvements on the diagnosis of parasitic diseases and subsequent treatments [8, 9], any reduction has not shown, and IPIs happen to be the major public health problem in low-income countries primarily affecting schoolchildren [10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25].
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