Intestinal Parasitic Infection and Associated Risk Factors Among Pre-school Children in a Deprived Community in Amasaman, Accra-Ghana

Intestinal parasites (IPs) affect health, growth and development of children worldwide. At child daycare centres, children are potentially exposed to infections due to close interpersonal contact and contact with environment including soil they play with. In the city of Accra, Ghana, daycare centres are very common and many parents leave their children in these centres for a considerable period each day for work. These children could be prone to intestinal parasitic infections (IPIs) in these institutions. The present study was carried out to determine the prevalence and risk factors associated with IPIs among children in selected daycare centres at Amasaman, a suburb of Accra, Ghana. A cross-sectional study was conducted among a total of 143 children of age 5 years and below randomly selected from three daycare centres at Amasaman, Accra. Stool samples were collected from each child for parasitological laboratory investigation. Additionally, a structured questionnaire was used to gather socio-demographic characteristics, and the information correlated with laboratory findings. The entire results were analyzed using SPSS for Windows version 23 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). The overall prevalence of IPIs among the children was 18.9% (27/143). Infection in females (20.0%) was higher than in males (17.5%) though difference was not significant (P=0.669). Infection was highest in children of age 3 years, with no infection in those of age 1 year. The most common parasite identified was <i>Giardia lamblia</i> (7.0%), followed by <i>Cryptosporidium</i> sp. (4.9%), and then <i>Entamoeba coli</i> (3.5%). Others included <i>Ascaris lumbricoides</i> (0.7%), Hookworm (0.7%), <i>Schistosoma intercalatum</i> (0.7%) and <i>E. histolytica</i> (0.7%). There was a low rate of mixed infection (0.7%) which occurred for <i>G. lamblia</i> and <i>Entamoeba coli. </i>There was significant association between IPIs and family size. Families with 6-10 children at home had highest prevalence (42.1%). Children with mothers who had primary education had highest prevalence (24.4%). No significant association was found for source of drinking water, breastfeeding habits, presence of domestic animals or deworming status (p> 0.05). The present study revealed that IPIs is a public health problem in daycare centres at Amasaman. Health education on personal hygiene, environmental sanitation, potable water supply and deworming should be considered to control the prevalence of intestinal parasites among children in daycare centres.