In the present study, it was found that being male, age group between 10–12 years old and 13–15 years old, sharing of clothes with scabies patients, previous scabies history, having a family history of scabies, family size ≥ 5 and numbers of sleeping rooms were positively associated with scabies infestation.
Male children were more likely to be infected compared to female. This result was in line with studies done in northwestern Ethiopian and Cameroonian children (20) (21). The possible assumption could be female had more access to water than males and are able to maintain their personal hygiene. It could be also male, particularly in the rural area, spend more time outside and can be potentially prone to infection easily since other environmental factors also play a significant role for scabies transmission. Male also have a habit to sleep with others that could contribute to acquiring the infestation (20). However, the result was in contrast with other studies in which no significant difference was observed between being male or female with scabies infestation (22)(23). This difference could be due to the socio-cultural differences or number of study participants included.
Younger children were more likely to get scabies infestation. Children between 10–12 years of age were found to be the most affected age group (AOR: 8, 95%CI: 2.7, 24.2) followed by 13–15 years of age (AOR = 7.7, 95%CI: 2.6, 23.1). The finding was in line with a similar study conducted in Cameroonian boarding schools (20). However, the result was in contrast with other studies conducted in South West Ethiopia, Quetta and Pakistan (21)(24)(25). The reason why younger children were more prone to scabies could be due to the fact that younger children, particularly those at school are at high risk of scabies infestations as the school environments may increase the susceptibility of cross-infestation and increase contacts (13). The other possibility could be younger children could not have awareness of how to prevent scabies and keep personal hygiene. In addition, younger children, are most commonly shared clothes with others (4)(2) who are potential having scabies.
Statistically, a significant association was observed between family size and scabies infestation that the odd of acquiring scabies was 3.4 in those having more than five family members (AOR = 3.4; 95%CI: 1.5, 7.7). Majority of cases in the current study were live in a household having five or more family members. This finding was consistent with the study done in Pakistan indicating households with six to ten persons per household were more likely to acquire scabies (24). In addition, our finding was also supported by other similar study conducted in west of Iran which revealed that scabies had been directly associated with family size (26). It is well known that scabies can spread easily under crowded conditions where close body and skin contact is common (16)(23). In general, communicable diseases are more frequent and the transmission is easy when the population density is high (27). Crowded living conditions led to overcrowding sleeping space and thus increase scabies transmission among family members. Another scholar also reported a similar finding on the epidemiological study of scabies in primary schools, Fayoum Governorate- Egypt (28). The study conducted on scabies outbreak investigation among religious students “Yekolo Temari” in Gonder town, Ethiopia also revealed living in crowded conditions was a risk for having scabies (29). The increased risk of scabies as the family size is increasing could be due to overcrowding among larger families, which increases the sharing of clothes, beds and other utensils potentially abiotic hosts for the mite. The other justification could be that larger family size may leads to poor personal hygiene due to giving care for all family members is challenging due to shortage of materials for personal hygiene (21)(28).
The number of sleeping rooms ≤ 3 was significantly associated with developing scabies (AOR = 8.2; 95%CI: 2.9, 23.1). Fewer rooms and many people sharing the same bed can lead to the predisposition to scabies infestation, mainly due to contact transmission of the disease. An increased number of family members with small sleeping rooms typically lead to poor living conditions and unhealthy practices (9). Our finding was in line with the study conducted in Fayoum Egypt (22). It was found that family history of scabies was 9.8 times more prone to having scabies (AOR = 9.8; 95%CI: 3.9, 24.4). This result is supported by other similar study conducted in Egypt (23). The reason could be probably that awareness of family members about the spread of the disease between family members is less and leads to reduced preventive measure to be taken (20).
The current study demonstrated that children who have been sharing clothes with scabies infected persons were more likely prone to having scabies (AOR = 7.4; 95%CI: 2.7, 24.0) and became infected in greater proportions. The result is in line with the study conducted in Pakistan and Egypt (24)(23). Since Scabies mites could stay alive on cloth for prolonged time unless complete removal made such as bedding and clothing laundered properly, children who are sharing clothes could get the disease easily even after medication. Previous scabies infestation was found to be independent factors of scabies reinfestation (AOR = 7.4, 95%CI: 1.4, 39.1). Re-infestation of scabies are more likely to occur due to incorrectly applied treatment, treatment failure or inadequate treatment of the environment or close contacts that are ineffective for the eradication of mites on physical bodies (30). Inappropriate medication could be contributing to reinfection as we noted only a few children have gotten medication for the infestation in the current study. This might allow the scabies mites to persist in the environment including cloths and other potential sources.
Sleeping with scabies infected person, taking shower frequencies, parent’s education, resident, number of students per classroom, animal living inside the house, sources of water for domestic purpose, home affected by flooding, animals living inside the house and frequency of cloth washing were not significantly associated with scabies in the current study. It is in contrast with other previous studies in Bedwecho district, Pakistan and Egypt (21)(24)(23). The possible reasons for this discrepancy could be sociocultural, socioeconomical status and environmental factors differences.