Association of haemato-biochemical indices and blood composite ratios with microfilaridermia in Onchocerciasis patients

Table 1 Baseline socio-demographic characteristics of study participants

Variable	N	a-Microfilaridermic (n = 34)	N	Microfilaridermic (n = 105)	p-value
Age (years)	34	41.5 [34.5–45.0]	105	37.0 [30.0–44.0]	0.070^¥
Year in an endemic area (years)	34	30.0 [22.0–35.0]	105	25.0 [15.0–30.0]	0.007^¥
Gender (male, n.%)	34	22 [64.7]	105	70 [66.7]	0.834^a
Distance to the nearest river (n.%)
< 1.00 km	34	12 [35.3]	105	43 [41.0]	0.046^a
1.00–2.00 km		20 [58.8]		40 [38.1]
> 2.00 km		2 [5.9]		22 [21.0]
Occupation	34		105		0.001^b
Farmer		23 [67.7]		89 [84.8]
Trader		8 [23.5]		3 [2.8]
Others		3 [8.8]		13 [12.4]
Has taken IVM before, n (%)	34	34 [100.0]	105	95 [90.5]	0.062^b
Individual IVM intake	34	4.0 [3.75–5.0]	105	4.0 [3.0–5.0]	0.056^¥
total nodule sites	34	1.0 [1.0–2.0]	105	2.0 [1.0–2.0]	0.089^¥
total nodule counts	34	1.0 [1.0–2.3]	105	2.0 [1.0–3.0]	0.169^¥
Mf skin load (Mf/mg)	34	0.00 [0.00–0.00]	105	0.62 [0.25–2.00]	< 0.001^¥

^a: chi-square test;^b: Fishers’ exact test;^¥: Mann-Whitney U-test analysis; km: kilometres; Mf/mg: microfilariae per milligram of skin weight

ISSN: 1471-2334