TITLE:
Prevalence of schistosomiasis and associated factors among students attending at elementary schools in Amibera District, Ethiopia
AUTHORS:
Worku Awoke, Melkamu Bedimo, Molalign Tarekegn
KEYWORDS:
Prevalence; Schistosomiasis; Amibera District; Ethiopia
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Preventive Medicine,
Vol.3 No.2,
April
29,
2013
ABSTRACT:
Introduction: Schistosomiasis is one of the
most prevalent parasitic diseases and an important public health problem in many developing countries including
Ethiopia. The study was aimed at assessing prevalence of schistosomiasis and associated factors among students
attending at elementary schools in Amibera District, Ethiopia. Methods:
A cross sectional school based study was carried out on sample of 840 students.
First, all
elementary schools around Amibera District were grouped in to strata based on their distance
from the irrigation site as “Near” or “Far”. Then two schools were selected by
simple random sampling method from each stratum. Finally, proportional
allocation of the sample size was done according to the number of students in
each stratum. From each grade level students were selected by simple random
sampling techniques. A pre-tested structured questionnaire was used to
collect data on socio demographic characteristics, water contact habit and
toilet utilization. Stool and urine examination were done to determine
prevalence. The analysis was carried out using SPSS version 16.0. Result
and Conclusions: The overall prevalence of schis- tosomiasis in this study was 8.2%;
among this Schisosoma haematobium was 7.4% and Schisosoma mansoni was 0.8%. Education level (p-value = 0.047, OR = 1.834), swimming habit (p-value = 0.0001, OR = 4.979) and
source of water for domestic consumption (p-value = 0.0001, OR = 0.334) had
shown significant association with the occurrence of S. haematobium infection. Conclusion and
recommendations: The prevalence of schistosomiasis was not
what to be neglected. It was significantly associated with educational level,
swimming habit of children and source of
water for domestic consumption. Therefore, provision of safe water
supply and health education at school level was recommended.