Effects, equity, and cost of school-based and community-wide treatment strategies for soil-transmitted helminths in Kenya: a cluster-randomised controlled trial.

ABSTRACT:

Background

School-based deworming programmes can reduce morbidity attributable to soil-transmitted helminths in children but do not interrupt transmission in the wider community. We assessed the effects of alternative mass treatment strategies on community soil-transmitted helminth infection.

Methods

In this cluster-randomised controlled trial, 120 community units (clusters) serving 150 000 households in Kenya were randomly assigned (1:1:1) to receive albendazole through annual school-based treatment targeting 2-14 year olds or annual or biannual community-wide treatment targeting all ages. The primary outcome was community hookworm prevalence, assessed at 12 and 24 months through repeat cross-sectional surveys. Secondary outcomes were Ascaris lumbricoides and Trichuris tric

SUBMITTER: Pullan RL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6525786 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature