Kumar D Sunil, Kulkarni Praveen, Shabadi Nayanabai, Gopi Arun, Mohandas Aparna, Narayana Murthy M R
Department of Community Medicine, JSS Medical College, JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research, Mysuru, Karnataka, India.
J Family Med Prim Care. 2020 Jul 30;9(7):3623-3629. doi: 10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_568_20. eCollection 2020 Jul.
Effective and efficient use of technological advances will ease public health interventions and also help in reaching a larger population. Geographic Information System (GIS) and Foldscope are two such technologies, which have promising utilities in public health. Identifying intestinal parasitic infections early through feasible technologies will help in their effective management. With this objective, this study was conducted to assess the prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections among school children in southern districts of Karnataka, India.
This cross-sectional study was conducted among randomly selected 10 urban, 10 rural, and 5 tribal schools of southern districts of Karnataka. A total of 1052 children studying in these schools were selected. Stool samples were collected and examined under Foldscope for parasitic infestation. The schools where children with worm infestations present were plotted in the GIS map.
Among 1052 children included in this study, 139 (13.2%) were found to have an intestinal parasitic infestation. Among these children, 24.6% were in the age group of 5-9 years, 12.2% were males, and 14.4% were females. Urban students had higher odds (2.765) of parasitic infections compared to rural students. Mean age, height, and weight were significantly lesser among subjects with a worm infestation.
Utility of Foldscope and GIS was found to be feasible and effective in the detection and mapping of parasitic infestations. The prevalence of parasitic infestation was found to be high among urban school children. Age, weight, height, and urban residence were found to be the major predictors of outcome.
有效且高效地利用技术进步将简化公共卫生干预措施，也有助于覆盖更多人群。地理信息系统（GIS）和折叠显微镜就是这样两种技术，它们在公共卫生领域具有广阔的应用前景。通过可行的技术早期识别肠道寄生虫感染将有助于对其进行有效管理。基于这一目标，本研究旨在评估印度卡纳塔克邦南部地区学童肠道寄生虫感染的患病率。
本横断面研究在卡纳塔克邦南部地区随机选取的10所城市学校、10所农村学校和5所部落学校中进行。共选取了这些学校中的1052名儿童。采集粪便样本并在折叠显微镜下检查是否有寄生虫感染。将发现有蠕虫感染儿童的学校标注在GIS地图上。
在本研究纳入的1052名儿童中，发现139名（13.2%）患有肠道寄生虫感染。在这些儿童中，24.6%处于5至9岁年龄组，12.2%为男性，14.4%为女性。与农村学生相比，城市学生感染寄生虫的几率更高（2.765）。蠕虫感染受试者的平均年龄、身高和体重显著更低。
发现折叠显微镜和GIS在寄生虫感染的检测和绘图方面是可行且有效的。发现城市学童中寄生虫感染的患病率较高。年龄、体重、身高和城市居住情况是结果的主要预测因素。
