Prevalence of intestinal parasitc infections and Associated factors among street children in jimma Town 2019: a cross sectional study

Abstract

Street children are defined as any girl or boy whose age is less than 18 years for whom the street has become his or her habitual abode and/or source of livelihood, and who is inadequately protected, supervised or directed by responsible adults. They are a group of population who are underserved and exposed to numerous social, psychological and physical problems. In Ethiopia the issue of street children and especially their health problems are given poor attention in research. This problem is pronounced when it comes to the issue of intestinal parasitic infections that add misery to the already underprivileged street children by impacting their current and future abilities to lead a decent life. Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections and associated factors among street children in Jimma town in the year 2019. Methods and Materials: Community based cross sectional study was used. Complete enumeration was employed and 312 study subjects were included after preparing list of the street children in urban Kebeles of the town. Pretested tool was used to collect the data. Collected data was entered to Epidata version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 20 for analysis. Stool samples were examined by using wet mount and formalin ether concentration for the existence of parasitic agents. Appropriate descriptive analysis was conducted for the data. Bivariable and multivariable logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with intestinal parasitic infection. Variables with the level of significance ≤ 0.25 on the bi variable analysis were candidates for the multivariable analysis. Significance of association was decided by using the 95% confidence interval of AOR and P-value of ≤ 0.05 in the multivariable model. Result: A total of 312 children of the street who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were involved in the study making the response rate 96.2%. The prevalence of intestinal parasitic infection was 66.7%. Ascaris Lumbricoides, Trichuris Trichuria and Schistosoma mansoni were predominant species. Untrimmed finger nails AOR=2.03;95%CI (1.02-4.06), eating street food AOR=2.24;95% CI (1.04-5.02), practice of swimming in unprotected water bodies AOR=2.5; 95% CI (1.24-5.04), not wearing shoes at the time of data collection AOR= 3.8;95% CI (1.8-8.2) and lacking knowledge of way of transmission of intestinal parasites AOR= 2.5; 95% CI (1.25- 5.0) were significantly associated with intestinal parasitic infections. Conclusion and Recommendations: The prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections and magnitude of multiple infections among street children in the study area was high and require integrated interventions to avert the problem. Several factors such as status of finger nails, swimming habit, eating street foods, shoe wearing and lacking knowledge of ways of transmission of intestinal parasitic infections are also associated with infection status. Measures has to be taken to curb the problem by taking integrated interventions like including them in mass drug administration and targeted health education towards identified factors