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[Risk factors for toxoplasmosis in children]
1Servicio de Enfermedades Infecciosas, Hospital Infantil La Paz.
Insights
Childhood toxoplasmosis is common, affecting 42.8% of children studied. Key risk factors include contact with domestic cats, living in non-urbanized housing, and being female, highlighting environmental and demographic links to infection.
Area of Science:
- Medical Parasitology
- Pediatric Infectious Diseases
- Epidemiology
Background:
- Toxoplasmosis is a widespread parasitic infection with numerous identified risk factors.
- Understanding childhood toxoplasmosis is crucial for public health interventions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify and analyze the specific risk factors associated with Toxoplasma infection in children.
- To determine the prevalence of toxoplasmosis antibodies in a pediatric population.
Main Methods:
- Prospective study of 727 children aged 2-14 years.
- Investigation of Toxoplasma-specific antibodies and epidemiological data collection via questionnaires.
- Univariate and multivariate statistical analyses were performed.
Main Results:
- Overall prevalence of Toxoplasma antibodies was 42.8%, increasing with age.
- Significant risk factors included female gender, ground-floor housing without a backyard, non-urbanized areas, and contact with domestic or frequently visited cats.
- Multivariate analysis identified domestic cats (OR: 1.6), cats in visited homes (OR: 1.5), female gender (OR: 1.7), non-urbanized housing (OR: 2.2), and age over 7 years (OR: 1.7) as significant predictors.
Conclusions:
- The prevalence of Toxoplasma-specific antibodies is high in the studied pediatric population.
- Contact with cats, female gender, and older age (over 7 years) are significant risk factors.
- Non-urbanized housing, particularly when cats are present nearby, is a key environmental risk factor.
Background:
The risk factors for human toxoplasmosis infection are numerous. The purpose of this work is to recognize these risk factors in childhood.
Methods:
A total of 727 children was prospective studied ranged in age from 2 to 14 years. In all children Toxoplasma-specific antibodies was investigated and we make an epidemiological questionnaire about risk factors of toxoplasmosis: house, school, contact with cats and food. The prevalence of antibodies is analyzed and an univariate, and multivariate analysis is performed.
Results:
The overall prevalence is 42.8%, 27.9% in 2-years-old children and 58.1% in 14-years-old children. The univariate analysis is statistically significant in females, ground-floor house without backyard, no urbanized house, domestic cat, cat in another home which is frequently visited, children under 4-years-old playing with cat, cat close to ground-floor house without backyard. In our study, ground-floor house without backyard equals to no urbanized house (OR: 49.5). This house showed a strong association with cat close to the house (OR: 6.9). The best model of logistical regression that adjusts with our data was domestic cat (OR: 1.6), cat in another home (OR: 1.5), female (OR: 1.7), no urbanized house (OR: 2.2) and children over 7-years-old (OR: 1.7).
Conclusions:
In our study, the prevalence of Toxoplasma-specific antibodies is high. The risk factors that we found are associated with contact with cat, female and children over 7-years-old. The only house that showed significance was no urbanized house, associated with cat close to the house.