Department of Sociology, Wolaita Sodo University, Wolaita Sodo, Ethiopia.
Department of Sociology, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2021 Oct 4;15(10):e0009791. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0009791. eCollection 2021 Oct.
Podoconiosis is preventable if genetically susceptible people wear shoes starting from an early age and do so consistently. However, lack of routine use of footwear is one of the major risk factors for podoconiosis and several other foot-related Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). This study is aimed at describing the extent of footwear use among school-age rural children susceptible to the disease and investigating associated socioeconomic factors.
Cross sectional surveys were conducted in 330 randomly selected households in Wolaita zone, southern Ethiopia. A household head and a child aged between 9 and 15 years were recruited from each household. Household heads provided socioeconomic data while children were asked about their footwear ownership and footwear use.
Nearly half (49.5%) of the children reported either walking barefoot or wearing under-protective footwear in a range of situations. Girls, older children, those in higher school grades, who belonged to families with higher socio-economic status, and those who owned a larger number of pairs of footwear reported more protective use of footwear. The linear regression model constituting the adequacy of footwear ownership and interaction term (i.e. family socioeconomic status by adequacy of footwear ownership) variables explained 30% of variance in the protective use of footwear (AR2 = 0.307). The interaction effect of adequate ownership of footwear and family socioeconomic status consistently predicted the protective use of footwear among children (β = -0.175, p<0.01) though the main effect of adequacy of footwear ownership was stronger (β = 0.507, p<0.001).
Increased adoption of protective footwear is needed to effectively prevent school-age children living in endemic areas from developing podoconiosis and other neglected tropical diseases. Interventions aimed to improve the protective footwear use should consider approaches that also increase the socio-economic capacity of families in podoconiosis endemic communities.
如果易感人群从幼年开始并始终坚持穿鞋，那么 Podoconiosis 是可以预防的。然而，缺乏常规的鞋类使用是 Podoconiosis 和其他几种脚部相关的被忽视热带病（NTDs）的主要危险因素之一。本研究旨在描述易感疾病的学龄农村儿童穿鞋的程度，并调查相关的社会经济因素。
在埃塞俄比亚南部的沃莱塔地区进行了横断面调查，共随机选择了 330 户家庭。每个家庭招募一名户主和一名 9 至 15 岁的儿童。户主提供社会经济数据，而儿童则被问及他们的鞋类拥有和使用情况。
近一半（49.5%）的儿童报告在各种情况下赤脚或穿着保护不足的鞋子。女孩、年龄较大的儿童、处于较高年级的儿童、来自社会经济地位较高家庭的儿童以及拥有更多双鞋子的儿童更倾向于保护性地穿鞋。构成鞋类拥有充足性和交互项（即家庭社会经济地位与鞋类拥有充足性）变量的线性回归模型解释了 30%的保护性鞋类使用的差异（AR2 = 0.307）。鞋类拥有充足性和家庭社会经济地位的交互效应一致地预测了儿童的保护性鞋类使用（β = -0.175，p<0.01），尽管鞋类拥有充足性的主要效应更强（β = 0.507，p<0.001）。
需要增加对保护性鞋类的采用，以有效防止生活在流行地区的学龄儿童患上 Podoconiosis 和其他被忽视的热带病。旨在提高保护性鞋类使用的干预措施应考虑增加 Podoconiosis 流行社区家庭社会经济能力的方法。
