Abstract:
Introduction:Urinary schistosomiasis affects large number of people worldwide, with wide
spread in Africa and children as the most vulnerable group. Chronic existence of this infection
can lead to imbalance of nutritional status and growth retardation among children. Even though,
the disease is endemic in Ethiopia, there is scarcity of informationdealing with prevalence of this
disease and under-nutrition among individuals with this disease.
Objective: To assess the prevalence of urinary schistosomiasis and related under-nutrition
among primary school children at Abobo district, Gambella, Southwest Ethiopia.
Methods: Cross-sectional study was conducted from February to June 2014 among primary
school children in Abobo district. A total of 304 study participants were selected by simple
random sampling. Structured questioner and anthropometric measurements were used to collect
demographic and associated factors, and under-nutrition data, respectively. Urine samples were
examined by filtration techniquefor urinary schistosomiasis and egg load was determined per
10ml urine. Data was entered and analyzed using SPSS version 20. Both bivariate and
multivariate binarylogistic regression was used. AOR with 95% CI were used to measure the
strength of association between independent and outcome variable. P-value < 0.05 was
considered as statistically significant.
Results:Among 304 study participant the overall prevalence of urinary schistosomiasis was
109(35.9%) with mean egg intensity of 8.76 per 10ml of urine. Males(67(61.5%)) were
significantly[AOR(95%CI)= 2.15(1.31,3.52)] more affected than females (42(38.5%)). The
prevalence of the infection increased with age but without significant association between them.
Children whose fathers are farmer were significantly [AOR (95%CI) = 1.96(1.19, 3.22)] more
affected (61(56%)) than others. The prevalence of under-nutrition among urinary schistosomiasis
infected were 6(5.5%), 1(0.9%) and 4(3.7%) for stunting, underweight and thinness respectively
and they had no significant association with the infection.
Conclusion:Urinary schistosomiasis was endemic at the study area, where sex, father’s
occupation and living with parent were the determinant factors of the infection. There was no
significant association between urinary schistosomiasis and under-nutrition.Regular health
education and mass treatment isrecommended at the site.
