Impact of Hand Hygiene Activities on the Prevention of Intestinal Parasitic Infections and Anaemia Among School Children

NCT01619254 | Completed DMC

• 1 other identifier: AECID
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 365
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Impact exerted by intestinal parasitic infections is much higher in developing countries. School-aged children are at higher risk from the burden of disease, because they specially have many parasitic infections. The poor health results in deficits in physical and cognitive development and educational achievements. Nowadays, there is huge commitment among the global community to control intestinal parasitic infections and to improve nutritional status of young children in developing countries. Large-scale anthelminthic drug administration through vertical control programmes is still required for the foreseeable future and is, therefore, recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). However, due to the inevitability of re-infection in endemic areas, children need to be treated regularly, and once morbidity control is consolidated, the strategy must shift to transmission control emphasising access to clean water and adequate sanitation. To lower dependency on 'drug only' approach and to enhance sustainability, from the onset of control activities, complementary measures should be implemented, that depend on available resources. Therefore, the investigators are proposing to undertake a randomised controlled trial to assess the impact of simple and easy-to-do hand hygiene intervention packages (hand washing with soap and hand finger nail clipping) on intestinal parasitic infection prevalence, intensity and re-infection rates and on haemoglobin concentration and anaemia prevalence rates among 6-15 years old schoolchildren. Our results will provide solid evidence on if and how hand hygiene practice affects infection prevalence and re-infection rates, as well as, anaemia prevalence among the highly vulnerable age group.

Conditions

Intestinal Parasitic Infections; Anaemia

Keywords

Intestinal parasitic infections; Anaemia; School-aged children; Hand washing and nail clipping

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (2)

• - Proportion of intestinal parasitic re-infection rates among intervention and control groups

  Impact of hand hygiene activities (as intervention measures) on intestinal parasitic re-infection prevalence will be assessed.

  six months

• - Proportion of intestinal parasite load (mean eggs per gram) among intervention and control groups

  Impact of hand hygiene activities (as intervention measures) on intestinal parasitic infection intensity will be assessed.

  six months

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• Proportion of anaemia prevalence rates among intervention and control groups

  six months

Study Arms (4)

Hand hygiene

EXPERIMENTAL

Hand washing with soap measures will be carried out as an intervention activity

Behavioral: Hand washing with soap and hand finger nail clipping

Hand finger nail hygiene

EXPERIMENTAL

Hand finger nail clipping activities

Behavioral: Hand washing with soap and hand finger nail clipping

Hand and finger nails hygiene

EXPERIMENTAL

Both hand washing with soap and hand finger nail clipping activities will be implemented

Behavioral: Hand washing with soap and hand finger nail clipping

Customary practice

PLACEBO COMPARATOR

No hand washing with soap and nail clipping activities. House holds and children assigned to the control group will not have the interventions (hand washing with soap and nail clipping activities)

Behavioral: Hand washing with soap and hand finger nail clipping

Interventions

Hand washing with soap and hand finger nail clipping BEHAVIORAL

Assess the impact of hand washing with soap and nail clipping on child health

Also known as: Hand washing and finger nails clipping

Customary practice; Hand and finger nails hygiene; Hand finger nail hygiene; Hand hygiene

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 6 Years - 15 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17)

You may qualify if:

• households and children who will give a written consent to participate in the study
• households and children who are going to stay in the area throughout the study period
• children aged 6 to 15

You may not qualify if:

• households and children who able to produce a written consent
• children who are under treatment
• children with age less than 6 and greater than 15 years

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Mekelle University: lead
• University of Alcala: collaborator
• Maastricht University: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

College of Health Sciences, Mekelle University

Mek'ele, Tigray, Ethiopia

Location

Related Publications (1)

• Mahmud MA, Spigt M, Bezabih AM, Dinant GJ, Velasco RB. Associations between intestinal parasitic infections, anaemia, and diarrhoea among school aged children, and the impact of hand-washing and nail clipping. BMC Res Notes. 2020 Jan 2;13(1):1. doi: 10.1186/s13104-019-4871-2.

  PMID: 31898526 DERIVED

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Anemia

Interventions

Hand Disinfection; Soaps

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Hematologic Diseases; Hemic and Lymphatic Diseases

Intervention Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Hand Hygiene; Hygiene; Public Health; Environment and Public Health; Detergents; Surface-Active Agents; Specialty Uses of Chemicals; Chemical Actions and Uses; Household Products; Technology, Industry, and Agriculture

Study Officials

• Mahmud Ab Mahmud, PhD fellow

  College of Health Scieneces, Mekelle University

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

• Roman B Velasco, MD, PhD

  Alcala University, Madrid, Spain

  STUDY DIRECTOR

• Mark Spigt, MSC, PhD

  Maastricht University, The Netherlands

  STUDY CHAIR

• Afework M Bezabeh, MSC, PhD

  College of Health Sciences, Mekelle University

  STUDY CHAIR

• Geert J Dinant, Professor

  Maastricht University, The Netherlands

  STUDY CHAIR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT
• Purpose: PREVENTION
• Intervention Model: FACTORIAL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: PhD fellow and Instructor

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: June 9, 2012
• First Posted: June 14, 2012
• Study Start: July 1, 2012
• Primary Completion: February 1, 2013
• Study Completion: February 1, 2013
• Last Updated: February 3, 2015

Record last verified: 2015-01

Locations

ET (1)