Socioenvironmental and nutritional factors associated with Schistosoma mansoni infection among schoolchildren in a public-school at south of Espírito Santo, Brazil / Factores socioambientais e nutricionais associados à infecção por Schistosoma mansoni entre crianças em idade escolar numa escola pública do sul do Espírito Santo, Brasil

Introduction: Schistosomiasis mansoni is a neglected tropical disease that still needs adequate efforts for its control. This study investigated the factors that may been corroborating to Schistosoma mansoni infection amongst scholar children living in Alegre, Brazil. Methods: A school-based transversal study was conducted with 55 schoolchildren aged 6-10 years enrolled in one full-time municipal school at Alegre-ES. All participants were evaluated by food quality consumed classified according to School Child Diet Index - Ales Index and by anthropometric parameters of nutritional status. A parasitological survey was performed in stool samples from children that accepted to bring them to the school. Results: Ales Index revealed 70.91% (39/55) low-quality feeding, 10.91% (06/55) intermediate-quality feeding and 18.18% (10/55) good-quality feeding. An overall of 3.64% (02/55) malnutrition, 3.64% (02/55) obesity, 9.09% (05/55) overweight and 83.64% (46/55) normal weight were verified by body mass index (BMI)/age. Height/age revealed 5.45% (03/55) short stature-for-age and 94.55% (52/55) adequate stature-for-age. Parasitological survey showed 4.0% (01/25) of children infected with both S. mansoni and Ancylostoma duodenale and another child (01/25) positive only to A. duodenale. There were associations between BMI/age and food quality (P < 0.05); intestinal polyparasitism and schistosomiasis mansoni (P < 0.05) and between the absence of sewage network with the occurrence of S. mansoni infection (P < 0.05). Conclusion: S. mansoni infection still needs to be controlled by efforts that improve environmental safety and may include the access to good-quality feeding and adequate hygienic sanitary conditions, even in areas considered as low endemicity to schistosomiasis mansoni in Brazil.