The Impact of Intestinal Parasitic Infections on the Nutritional Status of Rural and Urban School-Aged Children in Nigeria

Intestinal parasitic infection and undernutrition are still major public health problems in poor and developing countries. The objective of this study was to assess the relationship between intestinal parasitic infection and nutritional status in 405 primary school children from rural and urban area...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of MCH and AIDS 2012-01, Vol.1 (1), p.73-82
Main Authors: Opara, Kenneth N, Udoidung, Nsima I, Opara, Dominic C, Okon, Okpok E, Edosomwan, Evelyn U, Udoh, Anietie J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
children
Intestinal parasites
malnutrition
Nigeria
Original
rural-urban
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Summary:Intestinal parasitic infection and undernutrition are still major public health problems in poor and developing countries. The objective of this study was to assess the relationship between intestinal parasitic infection and nutritional status in 405 primary school children from rural and urban areas of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. This cross-sectional survey in 2009 obtained anthropometric data, height-for-age (HA), weight-for-height (WH) and weight-for-age (WA) Z-scores from each child and fecal samples were also collected and screened for intestinal parasites using standard parasitological protocols. The prevalence of infection with any intestinal parasite was 67.4%. A total of six intestinal parasites were detected; hookworm (41.7%) had the highest prevalence. The prevalence of intestinal parasites and undernutrition was significantly higher in rural than in urban children (P
ISSN:2161-8674
2161-864X
DOI:10.21106/ijma.8