@article {96262, title = {Factors Affecting Pediculosis capitis Transmission among Primary School Children}, journal = {International Journal of Tropical Disease \& Health 2022}, volume = {43}, year = {2022}, month = {Aug-25-2022}, pages = {8-13}, abstract = {

Introduction: Human head lice infest people worldwide and are most prevalent in children. Outbreaks of head lice more commonly affect children 3 to 12 years old, with girls being affected more commonly than boys. The aim is to study the factors affecting transmission of the disease among the school children in villages in Benghazi - Libya.

Patients and Methods: In a cross-sectional study in western region of Benghazi, 556 students in three schools from Alhlys, Alatry and Abofakra regions were enrolled. The ages of children ranged from 6 to 13 years. Data collected include socio-demographic characteristics of the students, sex, age, school and hair were examined individually for head lice infestation in a separate room. Descriptive analysis and Chi-square test was used to determine the statistical significance of p-value \≤ 0.05.

Results: The data were collected on 556 students from the 3 villages: 39.7\% from Al-Helys, 28.8\% from Al-Tarya and 31.5\% from Abofakra regions. The age of children ranged from 6 to13 years. Female children were more than 50\%. The mean of family size was 7\±2 persons, number of bedroom in houses ranged from 1-5 rooms.. Sharing of personal equipment such as hair comb and linen was reported in 33.5\% of families. Pediculosis capitis manifestation was reported in 26.3\% of the participants. The prevalence of pediculosis capitis was 19.5\% in Al-Helys, 35.6\% in Al-Tarya and 26.3\% in Bo-Fakra; this difference was statistically significant (p\<0.05) . The prevalence of pediculosis capitis in males was 10.2\%, while in females was 41.8\% , this difference was highly statistically significant (p =0.0001) The highest prevalence of pediculosis capitis was in age of 11 years old (42.9\%), followed by age of 10 years old (36.6\%). There were no reported cases at the age of 6 and 13 years. There was no effect of parent occupation or education level on pediculosis infestation transmission.

Conclusion: The present study revealed that, Pediculosis capitis was prevalent in school children, more in females. Furthermore pediculosis was higher in certain villages than others.

}, keywords = {Pediculosis capitis, Prevalence, school children, transmission}, issn = {2278-1005}, doi = {10.9734/ijtdh/2022/v43i1730656}, url = {https://journalijtdh.com/index.php/IJTDH/article/view/1291}, author = {Salim Ali Alarifi and Ghait Alsdae and Gamal A. Duweb} }