TITLE:
Self-Reported Prevalence and Socio-Demographic Determinants of Multiple Parasitic Infection among Schooling Adolescents in Nigeria
AUTHORS:
Jephtha C. Nmor, Judith Nmor, Prosper Omah, Nwaka H. Kehi, Kensuke Goto, Junko Toyosawa, Daisuke Fujita
KEYWORDS:
Parasitic Diseases; Socio-Demographic Factors; Students; Nigeria; Africa
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Infectious Diseases,
Vol.4 No.1,
February
27,
2014
ABSTRACT: Background: Despite the rising burden of parasitic infections among young schooling
adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa, insufficient
attention has been paid to school-health. This study examined the self-reported
prevalence of major parasitic infections and its association with key socio-demographic
factors among young schooling adolescents in Southern Nigeria. Methods: An interviewer-administered school-based survey of students
attending schools in Southern Nigeria was conducted in 2013. The study sample
involved 585 students (60.9% male, 39.2% female and overall mean age of 15
years). The outcome variable was the self-reported presence of parasitic infection
suffered within the past twelve months. The exposure variables were socio-demographic characteristics: age, sex,
geolocality, school ownership, parents’ level of education and occupation. Association between the number of parasitic infections and socio-demographic factors were examined,
and multivariate logistic regression was used to determine socio-demographic
factors predictive of the presence of parasitic infections. Results: The most
prevalent parasitic diseases reported across the sample were malaria (46.9%)
and helminthiasis (27.7%). Over a quarter (38.5%) had one infectious disease,
while about half (40.3%) reported had more than two infectious diseases. In the study sample, the number of
parasitic diseases differed significantly by sex (p = 0.0344), age (p = 0.0483), geolocality (p = 0.0001), school ownership
(p = 0.0012) and parents’
occupation (p = 0.0199). Multivariate
logistic regression analysis showed that attending private school was negatively
associated with the presence of parasitic diseases (β = ?0.9129, p = 0.0022). Conclusion: The
high prevalence of multiple parasitic
infections among the study population is worrisome and should be considered as a school-health concern. Concerted efforts are highly needed to develop
school-health intervention programs for addressing the high prevalence of parasitic
infection among students. Such programs should be
tailored for specific socio-demographic groups. Although there was strong
proportionality between self-reported symptoms and parasitic diseases reported,
laboratory-based investigation is needed to validate our findings.