背景:肠道寄生虫感染仍然是一个重要的全球健康问题,特别是影响贫困和边缘化人口。这些感染极大地促进了儿童的疾病,营养不良,学校表现不佳,认知障碍,未来的经济损失。这项研究旨在探索和比较来自斯洛伐克多数人口和边缘化罗姆人社区(MRC)的婴儿在幼儿时期肠道寄生虫的发生。此外,它旨在探讨过去一个月有和没有肠道寄生虫感染的儿童的健康投诉,并评估各种危险因素对MRC婴儿肠道寄生虫感染发生的影响。
方法:我们使用纵向RomaREACH研究的第一波,从13-21个月的母亲和孩子的粪便样本中获得了横断面数据。总共分析了181名婴儿的粪便:105名来自斯洛伐克多数人口的婴儿和76名来自MRC的婴儿。
结果:来自MRC的婴儿明显更常感染蛔虫,Trichuristrichiura和十二指肠贾第鞭毛虫比大多数人口的富裕同龄人。MRC的婴儿感染率为30%在大多数人群中为0%(p<0.001)。在来自MRC的儿童中观察到单一和混合感染。患有肠道寄生虫感染的婴儿更容易受到各种健康投诉的影响,尤其是咳嗽,胃痛,烦躁,和腹泻。在MRC内,由于家庭没有冲洗厕所(OR=4.17,p<0.05)和接触未驱虫动物(OR=3.61,p<0.05)等危险因素,婴儿寄生虫感染的风险显著增加。再加上家里没有自来水,这三个因素加在一起使风险增加10倍以上(p<0.01)。
结论:在没有自来水和污水的MRC中,在没有驱虫动物的情况下,在社会经济剥夺的条件下保持卫生标准是有问题的。这些生活条件导致MRC儿童寄生虫感染的患病率更高,引起各种健康投诉,从而威胁他们的健康和健康发展。
BACKGROUND: Intestinal parasitic infections remain a significant global health issue, particularly affecting poor and marginalised populations. These infections significantly contribute to children\'s diseases, malnutrition, poor school performance, cognitive disorders, and future economic losses. This study aimed to explore and compare the occurrence of intestinal parasites in early childhood among the group of infants from the Slovak majority population and from marginalised Roma communities (MRCs). Furthermore, it aimed to explore the health complaints of children with and without intestinal parasitic infection in the past month and assess the effect of various risk factors on the occurrence of intestinal parasitic infection in infants from MRCs.
METHODS: We obtained cross-sectional data from mothers and stool samples of their children aged 13-21 months using the first wave of the longitudinal RomaREACH study. A total of 181 stools from infants were analysed: 105 infants from the Slovak majority population and 76 from MRCs.
RESULTS: Infants from MRCs are significantly more often infected by Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura and Giardia duodenalis than their better-off peers from the majority population. Infection rates are 30% in infants from MRCs vs. 0% in the majority population (p < 0.001). Single and mixed infections were observed in children from MRCs. Infants with intestinal parasitic infections suffer significantly more often from various health complaints, particularly cough, stomach ache, irritability, and diarrhoea. Within MRCs, the risk of parasitic infections in infants is significantly increased by risk factors such as the absence of flushing toilets in households (OR = 4.17, p < 0.05) and contact with un-dewormed animals (OR = 3.61, p < 0.05). Together with the absence of running water in the household, these three factors combined increase the risk more than ten times (p < 0.01).
CONCLUSIONS: Maintaining hygienic standards in conditions of socioeconomic deprivation in MRCs without running water and sewage in the presence of un-dewormed animals is problematic. These living conditions contribute to the higher prevalence of parasitic infections in children from MRCs, causing various health complaints and thus threatening their health and healthy development.