Development of cognitive abilities of children infected with helminths through health education.

INTRODUCTION

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of health education in learning and cognitive development of children infected, previously treated in an endemic area for helminthiasis.

METHODS

It is a longitudinal, experimental, with random allocation of participants. The study included 87 children of both sexes enrolled in the school hall of Maranhão, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, and divided into two groups: intervention and control. Initially the children were submitted to the parasitological fecal examination for infection diagnosis and, when positive, they were treated. For the data collection, a structured questionnaire and the psychological tests Raven, Wisc-III and DAP III were applied, before and after the educational intervention. For the group comparison, the Mann Whitney test was used, and established significance level of 5%.

RESULTS

It was found that previously infected children who received the educational intervention, children showed higher performance than the control group in strutured questionnaire (p<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

It is acceptable to suppose the positive influence and the importance in the use of educational interventions in the cognitive recovery and learning of children previously treated with anthelmintics.