Mendeley  

Zotero  

Asadi M, Maghsood A H. The Study of Frequency of Intestinal Protozoa and Related Demographic Factors among Mothers Visiting Health Care Centers of Hamadan city, during 2013-2014. Avicenna J Clin Med 2015; 22 (3) :187-194
URL: http://sjh.umsha.ac.ir/article-1-25-en.html

Materials & Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted on 253 (128 rural and 125 ur-ban) mothers visiting urban and rural health care centers of Hamadan. After receiving in-formed consent and filling the questionnaire, stool samples were examined by formalin-ether concentration technique, trichrome and modified Ziehl-Neelsen staining methods. The results were analyzed using Chi-square and Fisher’s exact tests. 

Results: Of the 253 mothers studied, 52 (20.55%) were infected with intestinal protozoa. The infection rate in urban and rural inhabitants was 14.4% and 26.56%, respectively (P=0.02). Blastocystis hominis was the most frequently detected parasite with prevalence of 14.62%, followed by Entamoeba coli with 5.92%. Moreover, Giardia lamblia was found only in 0.79% of mothers. There were significant relationships between parasitic infections and contact to animals, level of education, location, method of washing vegetables and occupation. 

Conclusion: The results of the present study showed a high prevalence of parasitic infections in mothers living in rural areas compared to urban inhabitants. Therefore, it is necessary to pro-mote the public health awareness of rural population to reduce the frequency of parasitic infections.