Intestinal parasites in stool testing among refugees at a primary care clinic in Toronto, Canada

BMC Infectious Diseases

Table 1 Baseline characteristics of clinic patients and associated number of submitted stool samples

	Included patients n = 1042
	n	%
Sex
Male	532	51.1
Female	510	48.9
Age group (years)
0–9	135	13.0
10–19	73	7.0
20–29	265	25.4
30–39	340	32.6
40–49	159	15.3
50–59	48	4.6
60–69	19	1.8
70+	3	0.3
Region of birth^b
East Asia & Pacific	69	6.6
Europe & Central Asia	37	3.6
Latin America & Caribbean	86	8.3
Middle East & North Africa	107	10.3
North America	2	0.2
South Asia	76	7.3
Sub-Saharan Africa	664	63.8
Region of origin^b
East Asia & Pacific	75	7.2
Europe & Central Asia	103	9.9
Latin America & Caribbean	84	8.1
Middle East & North Africa	82	7.9
North America	104	10.0
South Asia	37	3.6
Sub-Saharan Africa	556	53.4
Region of origin same as region of birth^b	831	79.8
Country of origin same as country of birth^b	604	58.0
Refugee category^b
Refugee claimant	966	92.8
Other^a	75	7.2
Highest level of education^c
Child ≤ 18 years	199	19.5
None	12	1.2
Less than high school degree	139	13.6
Graduated high school	246	24.1
Some or completed university/post-secondary	426	41.7
Underweight BMI^d	29	3.1
Anemia^e	142	13.9
Eosinophil count^f
< 0.5	938	91.0
0.5–1.5	86	8.3
> 1.5	7	0.7
Pregnant^g	85	22.5

^aOther refugee categories include: government-assisted refugees (GARs), privately-sponsored refugees (PSRs), blended visa office referred refugees (BVORs); ^bmissing n = 1; ^cmissing n = 20; ^dUnderweight defined as BMI < 5%ile (WHO age and sex-adjusted curves) for children and adolescents up to age 19 and BMI < 18.5 for adults, missing n = 97; ^emissing n = 22; ^fmissing n = 11; ^gIn reproductive aged females 15–49 years

ISSN: 1471-2334