| Abstract [eng] |
Substantiation: Tick-borne diseases are a public health issue worldwide. Tick-borne diseases depend on a wide range of environmental factors: abiotic, biotic and socio-economic. Social, economic and climate changes, prolong the tick activity season, expand their residential habitat and as a consequence – the risk of contracting tick-transmitted infections increases. This study analyzes risk factors of tick-borne diseases prevalence among students of Vilnius University by given the fact that there is a lack of research conducted in this population and risk of contracting tick-transmitted infections is underestimated. The aim of research work: to identify risk factors of tick-borne diseases prevalence among different faculties of Vilnius university students. Tasks of work: 1. To examine the tick bites and tick-borne diseases: tick-borne encephalitis and Lyme borreliosis prevalence among Vilnius University students; 2. To set tick bites and tick-borne diseases risk factors prevalence among Vilnius University students and assess which factors are most closely related to tick bites; 3. To analyze the peculiarities of the use of preventive measures and their impact on the prevalence of tick bites among Vilnius University students. Materials and methods. The study involved 668 respondents: 174 – students of the Faculty of Natural Sciences, 160 – Faculty of Philosophy, 119 – Faculty of History and 215 - students of the Faculty of Medicine. Respondents were interviewed by two data collection methods: 145 responded to the online survey and 523 to the paper version of questionnaire. The questionnaire was composed of 4 main parts, in order to figure out the bites of ticks and tick-borne diseases incidence rate, prevalence of risk factors, preventive measures, and the socio-demographic data. Results: 63 % of Vilnius university students at least once in their lives have been bitten by a tick, almost one fifth (16.8 %) have been bitten by a tick during the year of the survey. According to the survey results, tick-borne diseases prevalence among VU students is 2% and there are statistically significant differences between different faculties (p <0.05). The most significant risk factors among Vilnius University students causing tick bites are: mushroom / berry picking (p <0.05), leisure / working at the countryside (p <0.05) as well as temporary or permanent work associated with being in nature / forest (p <0.05). The main risk factor contributing to a higher incidence of the tick bites during the year of the survey was mushroom / berry picking (p <0.05). Most of the Vilnius University students use preventive measures against tick-borne diseases. Students of Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Natural Sciences were using repellents more frequently (p <0.05) than students of other faculties. Also, students who used repellents and special clothing more frequently reported tick bites (p <0.05). The vaccination spread between Vilnius University students was higher (16.2 %) than in general population (9%). Conclusion: VU students were bitten by ticks as often as other parts of Lithuanian adult population. Tick-borne diseases prevalence in VU student population is low (2 %) but it is significantly differs among students of different VU faculties. The main risk factors contributing to a higher incidence of the tick bites were mushroom / berry picking, leisure / working at the countryside and temporary or permanent work associated with being in nature / forest. The tick-borne encephalitis vaccination spread among Vilnius University students was higher than in general population. |
