School enrollment in Zanzibar linked to children's age and helminth infections
| Autor: | Lorenzo Savioli, Haji Ameir, Mahdi Ramsan, Antonio Montresor, Marco Albonico, Hababu M. Chwaya, Ali Foum, Theresa W. Gyorkos |
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| Rok vydání: | 2001 |
| Předmět: |
Male
medicine.medical_specialty Pediatrics Adolescent education Population Helminthiasis Developing country Tanzania Environmental health Epidemiology medicine Humans Child School Health Services education.field_of_study Sex Characteristics Schools biology business.industry Public health Public Health Environmental and Occupational Health Age Factors biology.organism_classification medicine.disease Outreach Infectious Diseases El Niño Parasitology Female business |
| Zdroj: | Tropical medicineinternational health : TMIH. 6(3) |
| ISSN: | 1360-2276 |
| Popis: | School health programmes have been identified as a cost-effective strategy to reduce morbidity due to soil-transmitted helminths in the school-age population, but the low rate of school enrolment in developing countries is a major factor limiting their success. OBJECTIVE The present study was conducted to identify reasons for non-enrolment and to evaluate differences in the occurrence of helminth infection between enrolled and non-enrolled children in Zanzibar, United Republic of Tanzania. METHOD A questionnaire was submitted to 520 households to obtain information about enrolment and other socio-economic indicators. In addition, one school-age child was randomly selected in each household and investigated for soil-transmitted helminth infection. RESULTS Overall, 71% of school-age children were enrolled. Enrolment increased with age. Only 41% of children under 9 years of age were enrolled compared to 91% in children older than 12 years. Enrolment is delayed because of an insufficient number of schools. Among non-enrolled school-age children, the proportion of heavy intensity infections was twice that of enrolled school-age children. CONCLUSIONS Most of the non-enrolled school-age children live together with enrolled siblings in the same household, thereby representing an important opportunity for effective outreach activities. The effectiveness of the school-based helminth control programme in reducing the intensity of infection was confirmed. The significant gains achieved by enrolled school-age children in this study must be viewed as an attainable goal for the important numbers of non-enrolled school-age children in endemic areas. Decision-makers must ensure that outreach activities are included in helminth control programmes targeted to school-age children. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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