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Table 1 Characteristics of the study population and prevalence of parasitemia and gametocytemia by molecular testing

From: High prevalence of Plasmodium falciparum gametocyte infections in school-age children using molecular detection: patterns and predictors of risk from a cross-sectional study in southern Malawi

 

n

P. falciparum parasitemiaa

Mature gametocytemia

n (%)

p value

n (%)

p value

Total

1519

219 (14.4%)

 

99 (6.5%)

 

Microscopy results

Positive for any parasitemia

127 (8.5%)

108 (85.0%)

 

65 (51.2%)

 

Negative for any parasitemia

1373 (91.5%)

107 (7.8%)

<0.0001

34 (2.5%)

<0.0001

Season

Dry 2012

623 (41.0%)

52 (8.4%)

 

22 (3.5%)

 

Rainy 2013

896 (59.0%)

167 (18.6%)

<0.0001

77 (8.6%)

<0.0001

EA transmission intensity b

Low

408 (26.9%)

22 (5.4%)

 

10 (2.5%)

 

Medium

777 (51.2%)

93 (12.0%)

 

44 (5.7%)

 

High

334 (22.0%)

104 (31.1%)

<0.0001

45 (13.5%)

<0.0001

Sex

Male

585 (38.6%)

91 (15.6%)

 

44 (7.5%)

 

Female

931 (61.4%)

128 (13.8%)

0.33

55 (5.9%)

0.22

Age (mean 17.3 years old)

Young children, 6 months to <5 years old

290 (19.1%)

21 (7.2%)

 

9 (3.1%)

 

School-age children, 5–15 years old

564 (37.2%)

127 (22.5%)

 

68 (12.1%)

 

Adults, ≥16 years old

662 (43.7%)

71 (10.7%)

<0.0001

22 (3.3%)

<0.0001

SES quartile c

Lowest

397 (26.2%)

60 (15.1%)

 

35 (8.8%)

 

2nd

427 (28.2%)

74 (17.3%)

 

29 (6.8%)

 

3rd

437 (28.9%)

67 (15.3%)

 

29 (6.7%)

 

Highest

252 (16.7%)

18 (7.1%)

0.01

6 (2.4%)

<0.01

Household construction

Unfinished

816 (53.7%)

143 (17.5%)

 

71 (8.7%)

 

Finished

703 (46.3%)

76 (10.8%)

<0.001

28 (4.0%)

<0.001

Eaves

Open

390 (25.7%)

69 (17.7%)

 

34 (8.7%)

 

Closed

1129 (74.3%)

150 (13.3%)

0.03

65 (5.8%)

0.04

Bednet use

Slept under a net previous night

979 (64.5%)

137 (14.0%)

 

66 (6.7%)

 

Net available but not used

364 (24.0%)

67 (18.4%)

 

28 (7.7%)

 

No nets in household

176 (11.6%)

15 (8.5%)

<0.01

5 (2.8%)

0.09

IRS in previous 12 months

Yes

234 (15.5%)

31 (13.3%)

 

17 (7.3%)

 

No

1276 (84.5%)

185 (14.5%)

0.62

82 (6.4%)

0.63

Fever in the previous 2 weeks

Yes

266 (17.6%)

36 (13.5%)

 

18 (6.8%)

 

No

1249 (82.4%)

183 (14.7%)

0.64

81 (6.5%)

0.87

Fever in past 2 weeks, any fever, headache, or rigors/chills in past 48 h, or temperature ≥37 °C

Yes

442 (29.2%)

58 (13.1%)

 

29 (6.6%)

 

No

1073 (70.8%)

161 (15.0%)

0.34

70 (6.5%)

0.98

Any treatment sought in the previous 2 weeks

Yes

301 (19.9%)

36 (12.0%)

 

18 (6.0%)

 

No

1215 (80.1%)

183 (15.1%)

0.17

81 (6.7%)

0.67

Antimalarial taken in the previous 2 weeks

LA

56 (3.7%)

5 (8.9%)

 

2 (3.6%)

 

Other antimalariald

10 (0.7%)

3 (30.0%)

 

1 (10.0%)

 

None

1453 (95.7%)

211 (14.5%)

0.17

96 (6.6%)

0.47

  1. EA Enumeration area; ICEMR International Center of Excellence for Malaria Research; IRS indoor residual spraying; LA lumefantrine artemether; SES socioeconomic status
  2. Italized p values are significant at level 0.05 after Holm-Bonferroni adjustment for multiple comparisons
  3. aParasitemia as detected by PCR for P. falciparum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH)
  4. bTertiles of parasite prevalence established for all 30 EAs from the first survey (rainy season 2012) were used as a proxy estimate of transmission intensity in the EA. See "Methods" section for details
  5. cMantel-Haenszel p value was used for trends with SES; all others were Pearson Chi square test p values
  6. d‘Other’ antimalarials included chloroquine, quinine, or sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine
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Malaria Journal

ISSN: 1475-2875

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