In areas where intestinal worm infection is common, does giving school children deworming drugs improve health and school performance? Evidence Update, Child Health Series, August 2015
Abstract
Cochrane researchers conducted a review of the effects of school-based deworming programmes on children’s health, ability to learn, and school attendance. After searching for relevant studies, they identified 44 trials enrolling 67,672 children, and one additional trial of over one million children.
Deworming programmes have little or no effect on average weight gain, haemoglobin, height, cognitive ability, school performance, and mortality, even in high endemic areas. There is not enough evidence to know if deworming improves school attendance.
Citation
Anon. In areas where intestinal worm infection is common, does giving school children deworming drugs improve health and school performance? Evidence Update, Child Health Series, August 2015. Effective Health Care Research Programme Consortium, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, UK (2015) 2 pp.
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