Prevalence of pediculosis among primary school children in Tunisia.

BACKGROUND

Pediculus humanus capitis (head lice) infestation is a global health concern, yet no study has examined its occurrence among primary school children in Tunisia.

AIM: To assess the prevalence of Pediculus capitis and its epidemiological characteristics among primary school children living in rural and urban areas of Monastir, Tunisia.

METHODS

We used 2-step stratified cluster sampling to randomly select 2396 children from 14 primary schools in Monastir during the 2022/2023 academic year. Head lice infestation was assessed through visual inspection of the hair, and data on the socio-demographic characteristics, lifestyle and pediculosis history of the children were collected. We used SPSS version 20 to analyse the data and used descriptive statistics to rate the frequencies. Multivariate logistic regression was used to examine the association between pediculosis and the predictor variables.

RESULTS

Overall infestation rate was 17.5% (95% CI 16.0-19.1%); infestation was 5 times higher among girls (29.1%) than boys (6.3%). Schoolchildren living in crowded family households, those in the third and fourth grades and whose parents had low education level were more exposed to infestation. Combing frequency, comb sharing and history of previous infestation had significant impact (P < 0.05) on the prevalence of pediculosis. Multivariate logistic regression showed gender and treatment outcome as the main potentiating factors.

CONCLUSION

These findings highlight the need for pediculosis prevention and integrated health promotion programmes among primary school children and their parents, teachers and nurses in Monastir and other parts of Tunisia.