A Study of Prevalence of Intestinal Parasites and Associated Risk Factors among the School Children of Dharan, Eastern Region of Nepal

Intestinal parasitic infestation is a major public health problem in children of developing countries because of poor socioeconomic conditions and lack of good hygienic living. It causes not only nutritional deficiencies and anaemia but can lead to intestinal obstruction in the infested children.

To measure the prevalence of intestinal parasitic infestation and to identify risk factors associated with parasitic infestation among the school children of Dharan.

A cross sectional study was conducted among 935 Government and private school children of Grade VI, VII and VIII of Dharan during 2007 to 2008. Stratified random sampling method was applied to choose the schools and the study subjects. The prevalence was calculated, Chi-square test was used to measure the association of risk factors and intestinal parasitic infestation.

Overall prevalence of intestinal parasitic infestation among the school children was 24.4 percent. Taenia species was found very high (5.5%) in comparison to other worms i.e. Hookworm (2%), Ascaris (1.9%), Trichuris trichuria (1.0%), Hymenolepsis nana (0.7%) and Enterobius vermicularis (0.3%). Regarding protozoal infestation, Giardia Lamblia (6.8%) was seen higher followed by Entamoeba hitolytica (6.1%). Hand wash before meal, skin, nail and cloths cleanliness was found to have significant relationship in the causation of intestinal parasitic infestation.

The prevalence of intestinal parasitic infestation was found to be high among the school children of Dharan, and was seen more among population who wash hand only with water before meal, and not having skin, nail and cloths cleanliness.