Prevalence and Associated Factors of Scabies In An Urban Slum Area, Islamabad

Abstract

Scabies is a parasite infection that affects both men and women of all races and socioeconomic backgrounds. Scabies traditionally affects the hands, between the fingers, wrists, elbows, shoulders, genital areas, and breasts in women. Prolonged skin-to-skin contact, hand-holding, or sexual contact are the most prevalent modes of transmission. Scabies is a sexually transmitted illness because transmission takes 15-20 minutes of close contact. Objective: To assess the prevalence and associated factors of scabies in an urban slum in Islamabad. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out in a slum area of Islamabad. A simple random sampling technique was used for the selection of households. The sample size was 397. A specially designed, semi-structured questionnaire was developed by the researcher to collect information on all study variables related to demography and other variables related to scabies. The collected data thus collected were entered and analyzed in IBM SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) version 21. The results were produced in the form of frequency, percentages, valid percentages and cumulative percentages, graphs and tables and tabulated form. Results: The results showed that 57% of population was suffering from scabies at the time of the study. Gender (male) (p-value 0.286), marital status (married) (p-value 0.126), educational status (illiterate) (p-value 0.005), income (<6000) (p-value 0.005), and length of residence (>2 years) (p-value 0.000) were significantly associated with scabies.  Conclusions: It is concluded that there was a high prevalence of scabies in the study population. Gender, marital status, educational status, income, and length of residence were strongly associated with the prevalence of scabies in that population while a number of people living in one room (overcrowding) was not associated with the prevalence of scabies.