The extent of protective footwear use among school-age rural children at high risk for podoconiosis and socio-economic correlates: A household cross-sectional survey in Southern Ethiopia

This study is aimed at describing the extent of footwear use among school-age rural children susceptible to the disease and investigating associated socioeconomic factors. MethodsCross sectional surveys were conducted in 330 randomly selected households in Wolaita zone, southern Ethiopia. A household head and a child aged between 9 and 15 years were recruited from each household. Household heads provided socioeconomic data while children were asked about their footwear ownership and footwear use. ResultsNearly half (49.5%) of the children reported either walking barefoot or wearing under-protective footwear in a range of situations. Girls, older children, those in higher school grades, who belonged to families with higher socio-economic status, and those who owned a larger number of pairs of footwear reported more protective use of footwear. The linear regression model constituting the adequacy of footwear ownership and interaction term (i.e. family socioeconomic status by adequacy of footwear ownership) variables explained 30% of variance in the protective use of footwear (AR2 = 0.307). The interaction effect of adequate ownership of footwear and family socioeconomic status consistently predicted the protective use of footwear among children ( β = -0.175, p
Source: PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases - Category: Tropical Medicine Authors: Source Type: research