Parasitic infestation and nutritional status among schoolchildren in Vientiane, Lao PDR

Aims: To investigate the prevalence of intestinal parasitic infestation among school‐aged children residing in Vientiane capital city; and to assess the impact of its infestation on nutrition status of those children. Methods: The school‐based cross‐sectional study was conducted from December 2005 to February 2006. The systemic random samplings were employed to select schools and schoolchildren. Five hundred and thirty‐six schoolchildren (350 high‐school children and 186 parents of elementary‐school children) were completely interviewed by semistructured questionnaire and performed anthropometric measurement. The direct faecal smear was employed to analyse 299 (55.8%) stool samples. The spss version 12.01 and Epi Info version 6.0 were used for data analysis Results: The overall prevalence of parasitic infestation was 38.1%, with 18.1% of Opisthorchis viverrini and 14.7% of Ascaris lumbricoides. The prevalences of stunting and underweight were 20.2% and 20.0%, respectively. The prevalences of stunting (OR = 3.28; P