Prevalence and associated risk factors of intestinal parasites among children of farm workers in the southeastern Anatolian region of Turkey

[b][/b]Objective. To determine the species, prevalence, and associated risk factors of intestinal parasites in farm workers’ children in a representative sample in the southeastern Anatolian region of Turkey. Materials and method. A total of 333 farm workers’ children, under the age of six years, were selected using the probability sampling method. Mean age of the children was 3.63±0.5; 55.5% were female. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire and laboratory analysis of faecal samples. Results. The overall prevalence was 44.6% and the infected children had single, double, and triple parasitic infections at 72.3%, 23.0%, and 4.7%, respectively. The most common parasite was [i]G. intestinalis[/i] (47.97%), followed by [i]E. vermicularis[/i] (37.84%), [i]T. saginata[/i] (27.03%), [i]H. nana[/i] (12.16%), and [i]A. lumbricoides[/i] (7.43%), respectively. Age, gender, illiteracy of the households, poverty, absence of toilets, bathrooms, and kitchens at the place of residence, lack of safe potable water, geophagia (soil eating habit), and being a child of a seasonal farmworker were the most significant factors associated with intestinal parasitic infection (P