Correlation between prevalence and socio-demographic, knowledge and risk factors of soil transmitted helminthiases: cross-sectional study among primary school-going children in Rarieda, Kenya

Authors

  • Stephen Onyango Arwa Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Mount Kenya University College of Health Sciences, Thika, Kenya
  • Dominic Mogere Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Mount Kenya University College of Health Sciences, Thika, Kenya
  • David Musoke Department of Disease Control and Environmental Health, Makerere University College of Health Sciences, Kampala, Uganda

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20202965

Keywords:

Correlation, Kenya, Prevalence, Risk factors, Soil transmitted helminthiases

Abstract

Background: Soil transmitted helminthiasis, classified as neglected tropical diseases are among the most common infections worldwide with greatest numbers occurring in Sub-Saharan Africa, Americas, China and East Asia. Globally, over two billion people are infected with school-age children bearing the greatest burdens. Transmission is through eggs present in human faeces. They are infections of public health importance as they cause among others, nutritional impairment, diarrhoea and intestinal obstruction. Prevention involves deworming, health education and sanitation.

Methods: The study was carried out in Rarieda, Kenya in 2018. Study participants were primary school children of ages seven to fifteen. Cross sectional study design was used and the data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences. All the ethical issues were adhered to as per the International standards.

Results: The study established that prevalence of soil transmitted helminthiasis was high in areas where the risk factors associated with the infections were high. Pupils who were more knowledgeable on soil transmitted helminthiases were less infected. Younger pupils were more infected than older pupils. Lastly, the prevalence of these infections varied with gender of the pupils, and geographical location from where the pupils came from.

Conclusions: Correlation between prevalence of soil transmitted helminthiases and risk factors, and between presence of toilets and level of hygiene practice were positive, r=0.90 and 0.93 respectively; while correlation between prevalence of soil transmitted helminthiases and knowledge was negative, r=-0.75. Values of the correlations were of statistical significance at p<0.05.

Author Biographies

Stephen Onyango Arwa, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Mount Kenya University College of Health Sciences, Thika, Kenya

Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics

School of Public Health

Mount Kenya University College of Health Sciences

Dominic Mogere, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Mount Kenya University College of Health Sciences, Thika, Kenya

Senior Lecturer, and Head of Department

Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics,

School of Public Health,

Mount Kenya University College of Health Sciences,

 P.O.Box 342-01000, Thika, Kenya

David Musoke, Department of Disease Control and Environmental Health, Makerere University College of Health Sciences, Kampala, Uganda

Department of Disease Control and Environmental Health

School of Public Health

Makerere University College of Health Sciences

P.O.Box 7062, Kampala, Uganda

References

World Health Organization. Soil-transmitted helminthiases: eliminating soil-transmitted helmnthiases as a public health problem in children. Prog Rep. 2012; 19-29.

Pasaribu AP, Alam A, Sembiring K, Pasaribu S, Setiabudi D. Prevalence and risk factors of soil-transmitted helminthiasis among school children living in an agricultural area of North Sumatera, Indonesia. BMC Public Health. 2019;19(1):1066.

Samuel F, Demsew A, Alem Y, Hailesilassie Y. Soil transmitted Helminthiasis and associated risk factors among elementary school children in ambo town, western Ethiopia. BMC Public Health. 2017;17(1):791.

Arwa SO, Mogere D, Musoke D. Prevalence and associated risk factors of soil-transmitted helminthiases among primary school-going children in Rarieda, Siaya County-Kenya. Int J Trop Dis Health. 2019;38(2):1-12.

Onkanga IO, Mwinzi PN, Muchiri G, Andiego K, Omedo M, Karanja DM, et al. Impact of two rounds of praziquantel mass drug administration on Schistosoma mansoni infection prevalence and intensity: a comparison between community wide treatment and school based treatment in western Kenya. Int J Parasitol. 2016;46(7):439-45.

Menzies SK, Rodriguez A, Chico M, Sandoval C, Broncano N, Guadalupe I, et al. Risk factors for soil-transmitted helminth infections during the first 3 years of life in the tropics; findings from a birth cohort. PLoS Neglected Trop Dis. 2014;8(2).

Moncayo AL, Vaca M, Amorim L, Rodriguez A, Erazo S, Oviedo G, et al. Impact of long-term treatment with ivermectin on the prevalence and intensity of soil-transmitted helminth infections. PLoS Neglected Trop Dis. 2008;2(9).

Li XX, Chen JX, Wang LX, Tian LG, Zhang YP, Dong SP, et al. Prevalence and risk factors of intestinal protozoan and helminth infections among pulmonary tuberculosis patients without HIV infection in a rural county in PR China. Acta Tropica. 2015;149:19-26.

Online Medical Dictionary. 2019. Available at: https://medical-dictionary. the free dictionary.com/ correlation ">correlation https://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/. Accessed on 22 February 2019.

Gebrehiwet MG, Medhaniye AA, Alema HB. Prevalence and associated factors of soil transmitted helminthes among pregnant women attending antenatal care in Maytsebri primary hospital, North Ethiopia. BMC Res Notes. 2019;12(1):644.

Opie C, Brown D, Using excel/spss in your research. In: Getting Started in Your Educational Research: Design, Data Production and Analysis. SAGE Publications Limited; 2019.

Creswell JW, Creswell JD. Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches: Sage publications; 2017.

Rajendran R, Sunish IP, Mani TR, Munirathinam A, Arunachalam N, Satyanarayana K, et al. Community‐based study to assess the efficacy of DEC plus ALB against DEC alone on bancroftian filarial infection in endemic areas in Tamil Nadu, south India. Trop Med Int Health. 2006;11(6):851-61.

Wang X, Zhang L, Luo R, Wang G, Chen Y, Medina A, et al. Soil-transmitted helminth infections and correlated risk factors in preschool and school-aged children in rural southwest China. PLoS One. 2012;7(9).

Oluwole AS, Adeniran AA, Mogaji HO, Olabinke DB, Abe EM, Bankole SO, et al. Prevalence, intensity and spatial co-distribution of schistosomiasis and soil transmitted helminths infections in Ogun state, Nigeria. Parasitology Open. 2018;4.

Kunwar R, Acharya L, Karki S. Trends in prevalence of soil‐transmitted helminth and major intestinal protozoan infections among school‐aged children in Nepal. Trop Med Int Health. 2016;21(6):703-19.

Downloads

Published

2020-06-26

How to Cite

Arwa, S. O., Mogere, D., & Musoke, D. (2020). Correlation between prevalence and socio-demographic, knowledge and risk factors of soil transmitted helminthiases: cross-sectional study among primary school-going children in Rarieda, Kenya. International Journal Of Community Medicine And Public Health, 7(7), 2455–2461. https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20202965

Issue

Section

Original Research Articles