Shewarobit Field Office, HaSET Maternal and Child Health Research Program, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
School of Public Health, Faculty of Health, University of Technology Sydney, Australia.
Biomed Res Int. 2021 May 12;2021:6645336. doi: 10.1155/2021/6645336. eCollection 2021.
Although deworming pregnant women is one of the strategies to reduce parasites (roundworms and hookworms) causing anemia and related perinatal and maternal complications, utilization of deworming medication among pregnant women in Cameroon is suboptimal. Comprehensive assessment of individual, household (including women's autonomy), and community-level factors associated with utilization of deworming medication has not been done so far. Therefore, we investigated the individual/household and community-level factors associated with deworming among pregnant married women in Cameroon.
Our study was limited to pregnant women because they have a greater risk due to increased chances of anemia. We used data from the 2018/19 Cameroon Demographic and Health Survey. Analysis on 5,013 pregnant married women was carried out using multilevel logistic regression. Odds ratios with a 95% confidence interval (CI) were reported.
Our findings showed that about 29.8% of pregnant married women received deworming medications. The individual/household level predictors of deworming medications utilization identified in this study were women's educational level, wealth quintile, and skilled antenatal care. Distance to health facility and region were identified as community-level predictors of deworming medications utilization. Higher odds of receiving deworming medication occurred among educated and wealthier pregnant married women as well as among pregnant married women who had skilled antenatal care or lived in the south region, whereas lower odds were observed among pregnant married women living in the north region.
Access to education and economic empowerment of pregnant married women in remote areas and the north region should be the primary focus of the Cameroon government to enhance deworming coverage in the country.
尽管对孕妇进行驱虫是减少引起贫血及相关围产期和产妇并发症的寄生虫（蛔虫和钩虫）的策略之一，但驱虫药物在喀麦隆孕妇中的使用并不理想。目前尚未对与孕妇驱虫药物使用相关的个人、家庭（包括妇女自主权）和社区层面的因素进行综合评估。因此，我们调查了喀麦隆已婚孕妇驱虫相关的个人/家庭和社区层面的因素。
我们的研究仅限于孕妇，因为她们由于贫血风险增加而面临更大的风险。我们使用了 2018/19 年喀麦隆人口与健康调查的数据。对 5013 名已婚孕妇进行了多水平逻辑回归分析。报告了 95%置信区间（CI）的比值比。
我们的研究结果显示，约 29.8%的已婚孕妇接受了驱虫药物治疗。本研究确定的驱虫药物使用的个人/家庭层面预测因素包括妇女的教育水平、财富五分位数和熟练的产前护理。到卫生设施的距离和地区被确定为驱虫药物使用的社区层面预测因素。接受驱虫药物治疗的已婚孕妇中，受教育程度较高和较富裕的孕妇以及接受熟练产前护理或居住在南部地区的孕妇的几率较高，而居住在北部地区的孕妇的几率较低。
喀麦隆政府应将教育和经济赋权作为远程地区和北部地区已婚孕妇的重点，以提高该国的驱虫覆盖率。
