Giardia lamblia infection And Associated Risk Factors Among Patients Who Are Seeking Stool Examination At Bule Hora University Teaching Hospital, West Guji Zone, Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Giardiasis is one of the major health problems in our country due to the use of contaminated water for drinking and the lack of awareness practices, such as washing fruit before eating and hand washing after latrine usage. Although few studies have been conducted in different parts of Ethiopia, there is a varied reported prevalence and associated factors. Therefore, the current study comes out with updated information. OBJECTIVE: To assess the prevalence of _G. lamblia_ infection and associated risk factors among patients seeking stool examination at Bule Hora University Teaching Hospital, West Guji Zone, Ethiopia, in 2023. METHOD: A facility-based cross-sectional study of 137 patients seeking stool examinations was conducted from February 15 to March 15, 2023. A systematic random sampling method was used to select the study participants. The stool samples were examined using the wet mount technique. Descriptive analysis and inferential analysis were performed. The chi-square test was performed. A p value of 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: The results of this study revealed that the prevalence of _G. lamblia_ infection was 18.7% [95%CI: 12.1-25.3]. This study revealed that factors such as residency (χ2 = 2.82, P = 0.027), maintaining food hygiene (χ2 = 6.6, P = 0.03), hand washing before a meal (χ2 = 4.25, P = 0.003), source of water for drinking (χ2 = 12.6, P = 0.0001), and patient finger nails (χ2 = 3.47, P = 0.026) were significantly associated with _G. lamblia_ among the patients_._ CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: _Giardia lamblia_ was seen among one-fifth of the patients seeking a stool examination. Health facility managers and health care providers work hard on patients' quality of stool microscopic examination and health education on ways of giardiasis transmission in order to decrease the prevalence of _G. lamblia_.