title: Strongyloides stercoralis in an urban slum community in Bangladesh: factors independently associated with infection.
abstract: Stool samples from 880 residents in an urban slum in Dhaka, Bangladesh, were collected on 3 occasions over one year, and examined for intestinal parasites. Information on many potential risk factors for infection was obtained by questionnaire from a respondent in each household studied. In a crude univariate analysis of the data, several of the factors were found to be significantly associated with Strongyloides stercoralis infection. Most of these factors were co-variate with one another, and with poverty generally. Using Mantel-Haenszel chi 2 tests to control for confounding effects of each variable individually, the following 4 factors remained independently associated with S. stercoralis infection: respondent's use of a community latrine rather than a private latrine, living in a house with an earth floor rather than a cement floor, being of Bihari ethnicity, and being 7-10 years of age. Implications of these results for the epidemiology and control of strongyloidiasis are briefly discussed.
authors.affiliation: International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B), Dhaka.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hall
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Conway
authors.forename: K S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Anwar
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Rahman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D001459:Bangladesh / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006798:Housing; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D010270:Parasite Egg Count; D011203:Poverty; D012307:Risk Factors; D017171:Strongyloides stercoralis; D013322:Strongyloidiasis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology / Q000469:parasitology; D014038:Toilet Facilities; D014504:Urban Health