Prevalence, Intensity, and Factors Associated with Soil-Transmitted Helminths Infection among Children in Zambia: A Cross-sectional Study

Soil-transmitted helminths are among the neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) of poverty. They are a common type of parasitic infections in the world, caused by three main species commonly known as roundworms, whipworms, and hookworms. The diseases have major health and socio-economic repercussions and significantly contribute to public health problems in developing countries.

This study investigated the prevalence, intensity, and factors associated with soil-transmitted helminths among children in Chililabombwe district of Zambia.

A cross-sectional design was used, consisting of 411 guardian – child pairs aged between 17-77 years and 1-15 years, respectively. This was conducted between October and December 2017. Systematic sampling and simple random sampling were used to select the household and 411 participants, respectively. The study used a structured pre-tested questionnaire and stool tests to obtain information on socio-demographic, environmental, behavioral, and service-related factors associated with helminth infection. Stool samples were collected and examined for the presence of parasites using formol-ether concentration and Kato-Katz techniques. Geometric mean was used to report the intensity of infection. An investigator-led stepwise regression was used to identify factors associated with developing Soil-Transmitted Helminth infection and the level of significance was set at 0.05.

Prevalence of soil-transmitted helminth infection was 59/411 (14.4%) and the most dominant parasite was roundworms 58/411 (14.1%). The overall intensity of infection was light (<5000epg) with a few heavy infections (>50000epg). Factors independently associated with soil-transmitted helminth infection after adjusting for other variables were residence (AOR=0.26; 95% CI [0.09-0.73]), household income (AOR=2.49; 95% CI [1.01-6.12]), and overcrowding (AOR =1.33; 95% CI [1.09-1.62]).

Our findings indicate that STH infections are still prevalent. Low household income, residence, and overcrowding are the factors associated with infection. This indicates that reinfection is common even after deworming.