Effects of a Post-Deworming Health Hygiene Education Intervention on Absenteeism in School-Age Children of the Peruvian Amazon

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. © 2014 thériault et al.