Volume 11, Number 8—August 2005
Dispatch
Malaria and Irrigated Crops, Accra, Ghana
Table 2
Summary statistics for variables measured in children in communities near urban agricultural sites and control communities, with results of univariate (Pearson chi-square or t) tests*
| Variables | Children in urban agricultural communities (n = 1,223)† | Children in control communities (n = 534) | p value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Children with Plasmodium-positive slide, % | 16.4 (200/1,223) | 11.4 (61/534) | 0.008 |
| Mean Hb, g/dL (SD) | 10.93 (1.46) | 10.59 (1.46) | <0.001 |
| Hb <8 g/dL, % | 3.4 (41/1,215) | 5.5 (29/529) | 0.039 |
| Mean age, months (SD) | 33.3 (17.1) | 33.8 (17.0) | 0.601 |
| Mean socioeconomic score‡ (SD) | 1.78 (0.96) | 1.49 (1.02) | <0.001 |
| Travel to village§, % | 7.9 | 2.4 | <0.001 |
| Taken malaria medication in last 2 wk¶, % | 23.5 | 22.3 | 0.600 |
| History of fever¶#, % | 21.2 | 18.2 | 0.155 |
| HH reporting bed net use, % | 37.7 | 24.2 | <0.001 |
*Hb, hemoglobin; HH, household. Control communities were those >1 km from an urban agricultural area.
†Number of children in the urban agricultural community group is higher because small plots of agriculture were discovered in 2 communities originally designated control sites. If these 2 communities were omitted from the analysis, similar results were obtained and significance remained the same except for children with moderate-to-severe anemia, which was no longer significant (p = 0.065) (data not shown).
‡Composite measure of socioeconomic status used was the asset factor score of the World Bank for Ghana (http://www.worldbank.com/hnp).
§Persons who had traveled to a rural (potentially malarious) area in the previous 3 weeks.
¶As reported by the caregiver.
#In the last 48 h.