Prevalence of Enterobius vermicularis amongst kindergartens and preschool children in Mazandaran Province, North of Iran

Enterobiasis (oxyuriasis) is probably the most common helminth, which infects humans. Amongst different age groups, prevalence of Enterobius vermicularis in children is high compared to adults. Oxyuriasis is one of the most significant parasitic diseases of children. This nematode in children can result in loss of appetite, insomnia, grinding of the teeth, restlessness, endometritis, abdominal cramps, diarrhea and etc. Due to important complications of this parasite, the objective of the current study was to determine the prevalence of enterobiasis in kindergarten and preschool children of Amol, Mazandaran Province, North of Iran. A total number of 462 children from 32 kindergartens of Amol were examined for the prevalence of E. vermicularis infection, 2013. Adhesive cello-tape anal swab method was trained to parents for sampling. In addition, a questionnaire was designed and filled out to collect demographic information for each individual. Data were analyzed using Chi square test and multivariate logistic regression for each risk factor. The overall prevalence of E. vermicularis infection was 7.1 % (33). Although infection with E. vermicularis in girls 7.9 % was higher compared to boys 6.3 %, there was no significant difference between gender and age (p > 0.05) whereas binary logistic regression showed significant difference between enterobiasis and age (p < 0.05). The findings indicated that the prevalence of E. vermicularis in kindergarten and preschool children is relatively high and still is an important health problem and should not be underestimated due to being highly contagious infection. Therefore, educational programs and mass treatment should be carried out in order to reduce infection incidence in this area and regular parasitological test and attention to personal hygiene in kindergarten and preschool is of great importance.