Relação entre infecções helmínticas, estado nutricional e desempenho cognitivo de escolares residentes em área endêmica

Abstract

Malnutrition and cognition disabilities are the most common health damage of helminth infection. Although this relationship has been widely studied only a few studies investigate the impact of different helminths on specific nutritional and cognitive deficiencies. Our aim was to investigate the relationship among infection intensity of soil transmitted helminth, nutritional parameters and cognitive abilities of school aged children from an endemic area. A total of 210 children aged from 7 to 11 years from the rural community of Americaninhas in Minas Gerais were investigated. Assessments comprised anthropometric measurements of weight and height, haemoglobin, intelligence tests and examining faecal samples for helminth eggs (Kato-Katz). Linear Regression analysis showed that, after controlling for age, gender and socio-economic status, moderate-to-high intensity of Ascaris lumbricoides infection was significantly associated with stunting, whereas low intensity of hookworm infection was significantly associated with low body mass. Anemia was more prevalent on moderate-to-high intensity of hookworm infection group. Also moderate-to-high intensity of Ascaris lumbricoides infection was associated with poor performance on the Raven test and hookworm infected children had lower means on Raven and Codig WISCIII tests, independently of the worm burden. Intestinal helminths are associated with malnutrition and cognition disabilities in endemic populations, with important differences between the effects of hookworm and Ascaris lumbricoides infection on nutritional parameters and cognitive abilities.