@article{27029,
  keywords = {Soil-transmitted helminths, school-age children, health hygiene education, Disability},
  author = {Thériault F and Maheu-Giroux M and Blouin B and Casapía M and Gyorkos T},
  title = {Effects of a post-deworming health hygiene education intervention on absenteeism in school-age children of the Peruvian Amazon.},
  abstract = {<p>Soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections are a leading cause of disability and disease burden in school-age children of worm-endemic regions. Their effect on school absenteeism, however, remains unclear. The World Health Organization currently recommends delivering mass deworming and health hygiene education through school-based programs, in an effort to control STH-related morbidity. In this cluster-RCT, the impact of a health hygiene education intervention on absenteeism was measured. From April to June 2010, all Grade 5 students at 18 schools in a worm-endemic region of the Peruvian Amazon were dewormed. Immediately following deworming, nine schools were randomly assigned to the intervention arm of the trial using a matched-pair design. The Grade 5 students attending intervention schools (N = 517) received four months of health hygiene education aimed at increasing knowledge of STH prevention. Grade 5 students from the other nine schools (N = 571) served as controls. Absenteeism was measured daily through teachers' attendance logs. After four months of follow-up, overall absenteeism rates at intervention and control schools were not statistically significantly different. However, post-trial non-randomized analyses have shown that students with moderate-to-heavy Ascaris infections and light hookworm infections four months after deworming had, respectively, missed 2.4% (95% CI: 0.1%, 4.7%) and 4.6% (95% CI: 1.9%, 7.4%) more schooldays during the follow-up period than their uninfected counterparts. These results provide empirical evidence of a direct effect of STH infections on absenteeism in school-age children.</p>
},
  year = {2014},
  journal = {PLoS neglected tropical diseases},
  volume = {8},
  pages = {e3007},
  issn = {1935-2735},
  url = {http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4133165/pdf/pntd.0003007.pdf},
  doi = {10.1371/journal.pntd.0003007},
  language = {eng},
}