Parent occupation as risk factor of hookworm infection in primary school children in Sokoto, Nigeria

Abstract

Hookworm infection is one of the neglected tropical diseases that pose health risk to school-age children. A cross-sectional survey was conducted to study the occurrence of hookworm infection among primary school pupils in two LGAs in Sokoto. Feacal samples of participants were collected and screened for Hookworm ova using wet mount and formol-ether concentration techniques. Risk factors of Hookworm infection were assessed using structured questionnaire. The results of the study revealed 13.0% of the pupils were positive for hookworm. Binary logistic regression analysis indicated being males with farming background as the risk factors of infection in the study areas (p<0.05). Therefore, results of the study is suggestive of the fact that parent occupation plays a significant role in the transmission of the infection and needs to be taken into consideration when designing control strategies for hookworm in the study area.