Assessment on the prevalence and risk factors of gastrointestinal parasites on schoolchildren at Bochesa Elementary School, around Lake Zwai, Ethiopia.

OBJECTIVES

This study was aimed to assess the prevalence and risk factors of gastrointestinal parasites on schoolchildren at Bochesa Elementary School around Lake Zwai, Ethiopia. Cross-sectional study was conducted on 384 schoolchildren in May 2016. The gastrointestinal parasites were examined with wet mount and formol-ether concentration techniques. Chi-square (χ2) test was used to evaluate the association between categorical variables and infection prevalence. Binary logistic regression on SPSS version 21 was used, values were considered significant when the p-value was less than 0.05.

RESULTS

The overall prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites was 22.6%. Males, 54 (14.1%) were more infected than females, 32 (8.3%), and 1-4 grade category, 64 (16.7%) were more infected than 5-8 grade category, 22 (5.7%). Age groups of 7-14, 78 (20.3%) were also more infected than > 15, 8 (2.1%); however, the variation was not significant (p > 0.05). In this study, parasitic coinfection was common; however, single gastrointestinal parasites were more dominant. The overall rate of gastrointestinal parasites shows that the environmental conditions where students pass their times are conducive to water-related diseases. Health education on personal and environmental hygiene keeping should be given to schoolchildren and safe wetland playing grounds should be prepared.