Epidemiology of Hookworm Infection in the School-age Children: A Comparative Cross-sectional Study

BACKGROUND: Globally more than 740 million peoples are infected with hookworm. In sub-Saharan Africa, approximately 200 million people have been infected with hookworm, 90 million of them were children. The objective of this study was to identify the prevalence and determinant factors of hookworm infection in urban and rural school-age children’s. METHODS: This comparative cross-sectional study design was conducted in Bahir Dar and Mecha district, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia from Mar-May, 2014. Epi-info software was used to calculate the sample size. Multistage sampling technique was used to select the children’s. Blood and stool samples were collected from the children to determine the hemoglobin level and the presence of parasites. Data were entered into the computer using Epi-info software and transferred to SPSS for analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to identify the prevalence of hookworm and binary logistic regression was used to identify the determining factors for hookworm. RESULTS: The prevalence of hookworm was 22.3% [21%–24%]. Hookworm infection was associated with gender (AOR 1.31, 95% CI [1.03–1.66]), wearing shoe (AOR 0.35, 95% CI [0.25–0.48]), hand washing practice (AOR 0.62, 95% CI [0.48–0.79]), personal hygiene (AOR 0.45, 95% CI [0.34–0.61]), age (AOR 0.44, 95% CI [0.34–0.57]) or availability of latrine (AOR 0.08, 95 % CI [0.06–0.1]). Hookworm infection significantly decreases the school performance of children. CONCLUSION: High prevalence of hookworm infection was observed. The ministry of health and ministry of education should include deworming activity as one strategy to increase quality of education.