Prevalence and severity of intestinal helminthiasis and some nutritional indicators in a rural child community in Mbeya District Tanzania

Abstract

A cross-sectional study was carried out from June to November 1991 in three rural child communities, 2-10 years of age in Mbeya district, Tanzania. This study was to determine the prevalence of intestinal parasites and its association with nutritional status. Six hundred and eight children from 402 households were randomly sampled from the three rural villages, from which social demographic Information was obtained and stool examined for parasites. The nutritional status was assessed through anthropometry and haemoglobin estimation. Confounding factors like malarial parasitaemia were studied. The overall prevalence of intestinal parasites was 10.7%. There was no significant relation between nutritional status (measured by wt/ht) and the worm loads in this child population, however an association existed between children's worm load and their haemoglobin level; whereby the higher the worm load the lower the haemoglobin level