[Study on incidence and validity of questionnaire in the diagnosis of oxyuriasis]

Oxyuriasis is one of the commonest infestations in our area, with rates ranging from 5% to 75% in several studies. The present study was carried out in 100% of schoolchildren in a rural town with a population of 1,000 in the Lerida province. The study had two parts. On the one side, the prevalence of oxyuriasis was evaluated with Graham's test; on the other side, a self administered questionnaire was distributed to assess the validity of the surveyed symptoms for the diagnosis of oxyuriasis. The results disclosed a 59.5% prevalence, which was somewhat higher in girls than in boys. The study of diagnostic validity showed that the only symptom with a high yield was the anal and/or genital pruritus. The remaining symptoms could be discarded due to their low reliability.