Authors

Discussion

Transmission of Schistosoma spp., blood flukes that cause schistosomiasis, is often geographically focal due to fine-scale spatial variation in exposure and contamination. Consequently, understanding the spatial determinants of water contact and individual and population-level factors is important for identifying high risk individuals and areas. 

We conducted a cross-sectional household survey of 3,491 households across 17 villages in Mayuge district, Uganda in 2013. We collected sociodemographic and water contact information comprising the number of weekly household visits to Lake Victoria, duration, and activity type. For each of three leisure, occupational and domestic water contact outcomes we fitted a zero-inflated negative binomial generalised linear model to week-hours of water contact. To explore the spatial structure of water contact we then fitted a binomial geostatistical model to a binary lake water contact outcome.

We identified risk factors for high levels of water contact and found that there was residual spatial correlation in binary lake water use after controlling for these variables. These findings provide insights into the determinants of water contact in Mayuge and potential drivers of spatial heterogeneity in Schistosoma transmission.