Individual correlates of Podoconiosis in areas of varying endemicity : a case-control study

Molla, Yordanos and Le Blond, Jennifer and Wardrop, Nicola A. and Baxter, Peter and Atkinson, Peter M. and Newport, Melanie J. and Davey, Gail (2013) Individual correlates of Podoconiosis in areas of varying endemicity : a case-control study. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 7 (12): e2554. ISSN 1935-2735

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Abstract

Background: Podoconiosis is a non-filarial form of elephantiasis resulting in lymphedema of the lower legs. Previous studies have suggested that podoconiosis arises from the interplay of individual and environmental factors. Here, our aim was to understand the individual-level correlates of podoconiosis by comparing 460 podoconiosis-affected individuals and 707 unaffected controls. Methods/principal findings: This was a case-control study carried out in six kebeles (the lowest governmental administrative unit) in northern Ethiopia. Each kebele was classified into one of three endemicity levels: ‘low’ (prevalence,1%), ‘medium’ (1–5%) and ‘high’ (.5%). A total of 142 (30.7%) households had two or more cases of podoconiosis. Compared to controls, the majority of the cases, especially women, were less educated (OR = 1.7, 95% CI = 1.3 to 2.2), were unmarried (OR = 3.4, 95% CI = 2.6–4.6) and had lower income (t =24.4, p,0.0001). On average, cases started wearing shoes ten years later than controls. Among cases, age of first wearing shoes was positively correlated with age of onset of podoconiosis (r = 0.6, t = 12.5, p,0.0001). Among all study participants average duration of shoe wearing was less than 30 years. Between both cases and controls, people in ‘high’ and ‘medium’ endemicity kebeles were less likely than people in ‘low’ endemicity areas to ‘ever’ have owned shoes (OR = 0.5, 95% CI = 0.4–0.7). Conclusions: Late use of shoes, usually after the onset of podoconiosis, and inequalities in education, income and marriage were found among cases, particularly among females. There were clustering of cases within households, thus interventions against podoconiosis will benefit from household-targeted case tracing. Most importantly, we identified a secular increase in shoe-wearing over recent years, which may give opportunities to promote shoe-wearing without increasing stigma among those at high risk of podoconiosis.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases
Additional Information:
M1 - 12 © 2013 Molla et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2700/2725
Subjects:
?? infectious diseasespublic health, environmental and occupational healthpharmacology, toxicology and pharmaceutics(all) ??
ID Code:
77180
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
16 Dec 2015 10:14
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
31 Dec 2023 00:37