Abstract

BERTO MOREANO, César Gabriel et al. Poverty and nutritional status-related intestinal parasitism in students, Huanuco, Peru, 2010. An. Fac. med. [online]. 2013, vol.74, n.4, pp.301-305. ISSN 1025-5583.

Introduction: Studies have reported high prevalence of parasitic disease in students from the jungle although none has associated it with poverty and nutritional factors. Objectives: To determine the relationship between poverty and nutritional factors with the presence of intestinal parasites in students from a Huanuco village. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Venenillo hamlet, Huanuco, Peru. Participants: Students from the only school in Venenillo. Interventions: Parasitological examination by Lugol’s iodine direct examination and Lumbreras' fast sedimentation technique was performed in 42 students. Level of poverty was determined by the unsatisfied basic needs index and degree of malnutrition by the Waterlow index. Statistical analysis was performed using Goodman and Kruskal’s gamma coefficient. Main outcome measures: Intestinal parasitosis association with poverty and nutritional status. Results: Presence of intestinal parasites was 97.6%. A strong association was found between parasitism and level of poverty (p=0.02, gamma=0.82). There was no significant association between level of malnutrition and parasitism. Conclusions: Association between intestinal parasitosis and poverty was encountered in the studied population.

Keywords : Parasitic Intestinal diseases; nutritional status; students; poverty; Peru.

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