IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pntd00/0009456.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Undernutrition, food insecurity, and leprosy in North Gondar Zone, Ethiopia: A case-control study to identify infection risk factors associated with poverty

Author

Listed:
  • Puneet Anantharam
  • Lisa E Emerson
  • Kassahun D Bilcha
  • Jessica K Fairley
  • Annisa B Tesfaye

Abstract

Background: Ethiopia has over 3,200 new cases of leprosy diagnosed every year. Prevention remains a challenge as transmission pathways are poorly understood. Susceptibility and disease manifestations are highly dependent on individual host-immune response. Nutritional deficiencies, such as protein-energy malnutrition, have been linked to reduced cell-mediated immunity, which in the case of leprosy, could lead to a higher chance of active leprosy and thus an increased reservoir of transmissible infection. Methodology/Principal findings: Between June and August 2018, recently diagnosed patients with leprosy and individuals without known contact with cases were enrolled as controls in North Gondar regional health centers. Participants answered survey questions on biometric data, demographics, socioeconomic situation, and dietary habits. Descriptive statistics, univariate, and multivariate logisitic regression examined associations between undernutrition, specifically body mass index (BMI), middle upper arm circumference (MUAC), and leprosy. Eighty-one participants (40 cases of leprosy, 41 controls) were enrolled (75% male) with an average age of 38.6 years (SD 18.3). The majority of cases were multibacillary (MB) (90%). There was a high prevalence of undernutrition with 24 (29.6%) participants underweight (BMI

Suggested Citation

  • Puneet Anantharam & Lisa E Emerson & Kassahun D Bilcha & Jessica K Fairley & Annisa B Tesfaye, 2021. "Undernutrition, food insecurity, and leprosy in North Gondar Zone, Ethiopia: A case-control study to identify infection risk factors associated with poverty," PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(6), pages 1-11, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pntd00:0009456
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0009456
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0009456
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0009456&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pntd.0009456?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sabiena G Feenstra & Quamrun Nahar & David Pahan & Linda Oskam & Jan Hendrik Richardus, 2011. "Recent Food Shortage Is Associated with Leprosy Disease in Bangladesh: A Case-Control Study," PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(5), pages 1-7, May.
    2. Salma Oktaria & Norma Sofisa Hurif & Wardiansyah Naim & Hok Bing Thio & Tamar E C Nijsten & Jan Hendrik Richardus, 2018. "Dietary diversity and poverty as risk factors for leprosy in Indonesia: A case-control study," PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(3), pages 1-15, March.
    3. Inge Wagenaar & Lisanne van Muiden & Khorshed Alam & Robert Bowers & Md Anwar Hossain & Kolpona Kispotta & Jan Hendrik Richardus, 2015. "Diet-Related Risk Factors for Leprosy: A Case-Control Study," PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(5), pages 1-15, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Doua Ahmed & Pierina Benavente & Esperanza Diaz, 2023. "Food Insecurity among International Migrants during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(7), pages 1-14, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Salma Oktaria & Norma Sofisa Hurif & Wardiansyah Naim & Hok Bing Thio & Tamar E C Nijsten & Jan Hendrik Richardus, 2018. "Dietary diversity and poverty as risk factors for leprosy in Indonesia: A case-control study," PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(3), pages 1-15, March.
    2. Anuj Tiwari & Pramilesh Suryawanshi & Akash Raikwar & Mohammad Arif & Jan Hendrik Richardus, 2018. "Household expenditure on leprosy outpatient services in the Indian health system: A comparative study," PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(1), pages 1-13, January.
    3. Inge Wagenaar & Lisanne van Muiden & Khorshed Alam & Robert Bowers & Md Anwar Hossain & Kolpona Kispotta & Jan Hendrik Richardus, 2015. "Diet-Related Risk Factors for Leprosy: A Case-Control Study," PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(5), pages 1-15, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pntd00:0009456. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosntds (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.